• The Journal of Korea Robotics Society
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• v.14 no.4
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• pp.270-277
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• 2019

Inspired by small insects, which perform rapid and stable locomotion based on body softness and tripod gait, various milli-scale six-legged crawling robots were developed to move rapidly in harsh environment. In particular, cockroach's leg compliance was resembled to enhance the locomotion performance of the crawling robots. In this paper, we investigated the effects of changing leg compliance for the locomotion performance of the small light weight legged crawling robot under various payload condition. First, we developed robust milli-scale six-leg crawling robot which actuated by one motor and fabricated in SCM method with light and soft material. Using this robot platform, we measured the running velocity of the robot depending on the leg stiffness and payload. In result, there was optimal range of the leg stiffness enhancing the locomotion ability at each payload condition in the experiment. It suggests that the performance of the crawling robot can be improved by adjusting stiffness of the legs in given payload condition.

• The Journal of Korea Robotics Society
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• v.18 no.3
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• pp.285-292
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• 2023

Small-scale ground mobile robots can access confined spaces where people or larger robots are unable. As the scale of the robot decreases, the relative size of the environment increases; therefore, maintaining the mobility of the small-scale robot is required. However, small-scale robots have limitations in using a large number of high-performance actuators, powerful computational devices, and a power source. Insects can effectively navigate various terrains in nature with their legged motion. Discrete contact with the ground and the foot enables creatures to traverse irregular surfaces. Inspired by the leg motion of the insect, researchers have developed small-scale robots and they implemented swing and lifting motions of the leg by designing leg linkages that can be adapted to small-scale robots. In this paper, we propose a leg linkage design for insect-inspired small-scale ground mobile robots. To use minimal actuation and reduce the control complexity, we designed a 1-DOF 3-dimensional leg linkage that can generate a proper leg trajectory using one continuous rotational input. We analyzed the kinematics of the proposed leg linkage to investigate the effect of link parameters on the foot trajectory.

• Proceedings of the KIEE Conference
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• 1989.07a
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• pp.693-697
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• 1989

In this paper, force control for a multi-legged walking robot is investigated. For stable but relatively rapid walking, a simple force control algorithm is proposed in conjunction with the position control system. The proposed control method is tested on an experimental one leg system of two degree of freedom with a force controller using a position controller and a monoboard microcomputer to implement the proposed control algorithm. The experimental results shows that the control algorithm can be applied for walking in a terrain with wide range variation.

• Journal of the Korea Institute of Military Science and Technology
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• v.12 no.4
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• pp.540-547
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• 2009

In the near future, military robots are likely to be substituted for military personnel in the field of battle. The power system of a legged robot is considerably more complex than the one used for a land vehicle because of the coordination and stability issues due to the large number of degree of freedom. In this paper, a servovalve-piston combination system for a straight-line motion of robot leg is modeled as three degree of freedom based on double inputs and single output transfer function. The output is the displacement of piston from neutral. The inputs are valve displacement from neutral and arbitrary load force in this system. LQR(Linear Quadratic Regulator) technique is applied in order to achieve robust stability and fast responses of the system. The Kalman filter loop, rejection of disturbance and noise, riccati equation, filter gain matrix, and frequency domain equality are analyzed and designed.

• 제어로봇시스템학회:학술대회논문집
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• 1988.10a
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• pp.137-141
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• 1988

A sampled data controller for the quadruped walking robot is presented. To provide systematic design procedure, the relation between PI gain of velocity controller and sampling rate is analyzed with the ISE performance index and the time responses. The position controller for one-leg, 3-axis, was developed under consideration of compactness and expendability. And several experiments were performed.

• Journal of the Korean Society for Precision Engineering
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• v.16 no.4 s.97
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• pp.138-147
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• 1999

For autonomous navigation, a legged robot should be able to walk over irregular terrain and adapt itself to variation of supporting surface. Walking through slope is one of the typical tasks for such case. Robot needs not only to change foot trajectory but also to adjust its configuration to the slope angle for maintaining stability against gravity. This paper suggests such adaptation algorithm for stable walking which uses feedback of reaction forces at feet. Adjusting algorithm of foot trajectory was studied with the estimated angel of slope without visual feedback. A concept of virtual slope angle was introduced to adjust body configuration against slope change of the supporting terrain. Regeneration of foot trajectory also used this concept for maintaining its stable walking against unexpected landing point.

• Journal of Institute of Control, Robotics and Systems
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• v.20 no.9
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• pp.936-941
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• 2014

Walking mechanisms are very important for legged robots to ensure their stable locomotion. In this research, Klann-linkage is suggested as a walking mechanism for a water-running robot and is optimized using level average analysis. The structure of the Klann-linkage is introduced first and design variables for the Klann-linkage are identified considering the kinematic task of the walking mechanism. Next, the design problem is formulated as a path generation optimization problem. Specifically, the desired path for the foot-pad is defined and the objective function is defined as the structural error between the desired and the generated paths. A process for solving the optimization problem is suggested utilizing the sensitivity analysis of the design variables. As a result, optimized lengths of Klann-linkage are obtained and the optimum trajectory is obtained. It is found that the optimized trajectory improves the cost function by about 62% from the initial one. It is expected that the results from this research can be used as a good example for designing legged robots.

• Journal of Institute of Control, Robotics and Systems
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• v.18 no.3
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• pp.201-207
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• 2012

Jumping is considered as a suitable way for realizing fast locomotion on the ground. As for the issue of developing mobile robots that can jump up and forward enough for accomplishing useful missions, this paper first introduces two types of jumping principles that are found in biological animals or insects. We also present how the principles are applied to several jumping robot examples that include outcomes for the past a few years and also our recent one. Design ideas and features of the robots are explained and compared in order to discuss important issues and guidelines for the design of jumping robots.

• Journal of Institute of Control, Robotics and Systems
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• v.21 no.8
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• pp.753-757
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• 2015

This paper introduces an experimental rescue robot, HUBO T-100 and presents the optimal motion control method. The objective of the rescue robot is to extract patients or wounded soldiers in the battlefield and hazardous environments. Another mission is to dispose and transport an explosive ordnance to safe places. To execute these missions, the upper body of the rescue robot is humanoid in form to execute various kinds of tasks. The lower body features a hybrid tracked/legged design, which allows for a variety of mode of locomotion, depending on terrain conditions in order to increase traversability. The weight lifting motion is one of the most important task for performing rescue related missions because the robot must lift an object or impaired person lying on the ground for transferring. Here, dynamics based motion optimization is employed to minimize joint torques while maintaining stability simultaneously. Physical experiments with a real humanoid robot, HUBO T-100, are presented to verify the proposed method.

• The Transactions of the Korean Institute of Electrical Engineers D
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• v.54 no.9
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• pp.547-555
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• 2005

A fault-tolerant gait of multi-legged robots with static walking is a gait which can maintain gait stability and continue its walking against an occurrence of a leg failure. This paper proposes fault-tolerant gait planning of a quadruped robot walking over a rough planar terrain. The considered fault is a locked joint failure, which prevents a joint of a leg from moving and makes it locked in a known position. In this Paper, two-phase discontinuous gaits are presented as a new fault-tolerant gait for quadruped robots suffering from a locked joint failure. By comparing with previously developed one-phase discontinuous gaits, it is shown that the proposed gait has great advantages in gait performance such as the stride length and terrain adaptability. Based on the two-phase discontinuous gait, quasi follow-the-leader(FTL) gaits are constructed which enable a quadruped robot to traverse two-dimensional rough terrain after an occurrence of a locked joint failure. During walking, two front legs undergo the foot adjustment procedure for avoiding stepping on forbidden areas. The Proposed wait planning is verified by using computer graphics simulations.