Preliminary Considerations in the Design of a Sensor for Improving the Reference Trajectory Calculation for the Individual Leg of a Hexapod

The free-climbing robots are the alternative to wheeled vehicles, because the legged locomotion allows mobility on the steep gradients under the harsh environmental conditions. The steady progression requires coordination of leg movements for which the force sensors implemented in the joints of the robot legs are not always sufficient. Considering the previous developments in the field of robotics, the combination of the impedance and vision sensors comprises an obvious solution for providing stable and accurate contact between the individual legs and the ground. The implementation of additional, non-invasive sensor/s on all the legs of the hexapod robotic platform, for the indirect measuring and analysis of the terrain surface, is investigated. Furthermore, a method for the parametric 3D modeling of simulation assemblies is described in a mixed top-down, bottom-up and middle-out design approach. Mechanisms were created using the common origin skeletal modeling (top-down approach), allowing the context analysis and the definition of the parameters for the further numerical optimization in an early phase of the development. Finally, the applicability of the anytime approach during the optimization of the mechanical parts of the mechanism in the design process was tested.