Virtual Reality to Simulate Adaptive Walking in Unstructured Terrains for Multi-Legged Robots

Abstract

Walking robots posses capabilities to perform adaptive locomotion and motion planning over unstructured terrains and therefore are in the focus of high interest to the researchers all over the world. However, true adaptive locomotion in difficult terrains involves various problems such as foot-planning, path-planning, gait dynamic stability and autonomous navigation in the presence of external disturbances [1]. There is a large volume of research work that is dedicated to the development of walking robots that exhibit biologically inspired locomotion. In this context, an insect-sized flying robot [2], an ape-like robot [3], an amphibious snake-like robot ACM-R5 [4], for-legged robots like Big Dog and Little Dog, an ant-inspired robot ANTON [5] and LAURON [6], are some well-known examples of biomimetic robots. A related study [7] describes an implementation of a neurobiological leg control system on a hexapod robot for improving the navigation of the robot over uneven terrains.