1STAR, A one-actuator steerable robot

We present a novel dynamic gait to control in-plane locomotion [1] (forward, back, clockwise and counter clockwise rotations) of a compliant legged hexapedal robot using a single actuator. The gait exploits the compliance disparity between alternate stance tripods, to generate rotation by controlling the acceleration of the robot [2]. The direction of turning depends on the configuration of the legs — tripod left or right- and the direction of the acceleration. Alternating acceleration in successive steps allows for continuous rotation in the desired direction. A simplified model of a robot is made and a numerical simulation was performed to analyze the behavior and optimize robot parameters. The robot is capable of rotating with a coefficient of friction as low as 0.2 but its performance improves as the COF increases up to 0.6. Beyond that, little change is noticed.