Design and Implementation of a Novel Robot Foot with High-adaptability and High-adhesion for Heavy-load Walking Robots

Due to special advantages of legged robots, research on the legged robots has been becoming a hot topic in recent years. However, study on the foot system is relatively limited, so far there is no foot that can adapt to all terrain. On the basis of investigation of the state-of-the-art of legged robots, this study presents a novel foot structure for the legged robots, design of the foot system with high- adaptability and large-adhesion is carried out to adapt extreme road conditions and the complex terrain conditions, such as mountains and swamps. The anti-skid cone, footpad, elastic skeleton, limit rubber ring, lower support, bionic Achilles tendon, cross joint, upper support, wrist buffer and other parts are designed. Based on Recurdyn dynamic analysis software, a virtual foot simulation platform for heavy load-bearing robot is developed, which consists of physical model for foot, control model, terrain module and foot-ground interaction module, and the simulation for the large load-bearing robot is realized. the simulation results show that the new foot can adapt to various terrain conditions, provide sufficient adhesion, improve the driving stability of the foot robots. Finally, combine prototype implementation, the design method of each part of the foot system is described in detail, and the bearing capacity of the foot system on different pavement is analyzed.