抄録
Although legged locomotion machines equipped with three active degrees of freedom per each leg possess great flexibility on irregular terrain, such machines need very complicated software in controlling and coordinating leg motion. As a result, such machines perform awkwardly except a particular legged machine even when they walk on a flat plane and although they have flexible mechanism, multi-functioned walkings are not realized under the existing circumstances.
Under these circumstances, the authors propose such a fixed gait type legged machine (MELWALK MARK-III) as can attain two dimensional walking and terrain adaptability. In this particular model, the fixed gait (alternating tripod gait) is realized by only one active degrees of freedom using an approximate straight-line mechanism and seven other active degrees of freedom are added for two dimensional walking and terrain adaptability. Mechanism and basic control system on the proposed legged machine are described precisely with the comparison of conventional machines equipped with three active degrees of freedom per each leg.
Experiments are carried out to certify the basic movements and the simplicity of control algorithm. In order to check the dynamic effectiveness, the specific resistance and the payload limit are also measured. Several features of the proposed legged machine are revealed through these experiments.
