Multi-legged robot
What is a multi-legged robot?
Multilegged robots are generally robots that move with four or more legs. Inagaki Laboratory's research focuses on hexapods and even more like centipedes. Such a multi-legged robot has excellent stability and transport capabilities because it can support its body with many legs. Therefore, they are expected to be able to move and work on uneven terrain.
How to move many legs?
The way the legs move is important for a multi-legged robot to move. Gait control determines how and in which order many legs are moved. We have developed a gait control method called "Follow-the-Contact-Point (FCP) gait control". The basic principle of the FCP gait control is that each leg contacts the ground point where the front leg contacts the ground point. If the front-most leg can contact a good ground contact point, the following rear leg can also contact the almost same contact point, and as a result, the robot can walk on uneven terrain. The same principle can be applied to walking even if the number of legs increases. Inagaki Laboratory is conducting research to improve walking performance by combining ground contact point and posture planning, balance control, reflex control, etc.
Each leg has a local controller. The local controller takes over the grounding point of the front leg, moves the body while grounding it, and finally transmits this to the rear leg. These local controllers work together to create the walking motion of the entire robot.
The four modes of the FCP gait control and the movement of the leg tip: The circle represents the leg tip and the rectangle represents the range that the leg tip can reach. The mode transitions when the ground point is took over from the front to rear legs.
Ongoing Collaborative Research
Since 2021, a joint research project on a large-sized hexapod robot (SOL) has been conducted among Shinmei Industry Co., Ltd., Nagoya University, and Nanzan University.