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Semi-autonomous Walking Control of a Hexapod Robot Based on Contact Point Planning and Follow-the-Contact-Point Gait Control

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Robotics in Natural Settings (CLAWAR 2022)

Part of the book series: Lecture Notes in Networks and Systems ((LNNS,volume 530))

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Abstract

This paper proposes semi-autonomous walking control for a hexapod robot controlled by Follow-the-Contact Point (FCP) gait control. In the FCP gait control, each leg contacts the same contact point with which the front legs are in contact, so the motion planning of all legs is focused on the contact point planning of the foremost legs. The robot perceives the ground surface at each step with depth sensors and creates a grid map from the resulting point cloud. The operator inputs the robot’s posture and height from the controller to a PC. The PC plans several steps for the foremost legs, and the robot moves the first of the planned steps. Contact point planning is based on a modified A\(^*\) algorithm. Experiments in which the robot walked on uneven terrains and S-curve confirm the effectiveness of the proposed method.

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Acknowledgment

This research is subsidized by Grant-in-Aid for Scientific Research (19H02108).

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Nagoya University, Furo-cho, Chikusa-ku, Nagoya, 464-8603, Japan

    Kosei Tanada & Tatsuya Suzuki

  2. Nanzan University, Yamasato-cho 18, Syowa-ku, Nagoya, 466-8673, Japan

    Shinkichi Inagaki

  3. SHINMEI Industry Co., Ltd., Chokoji 8-20, Toyota, Aichi, 471-0879, Japan

    Yuki Murata & Ryota Kato

Authors
  1. Kosei Tanada
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  2. Shinkichi Inagaki
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  3. Yuki Murata
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  4. Ryota Kato
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  5. Tatsuya Suzuki
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Kosei Tanada .

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. Faculty of Sciences and Technology, University of the Azores, Ponta Delgada, Portugal

    José M. Cascalho

  2. School of Engineering, London South Bank University, London, UK

    Mohammad Osman Tokhi

  3. School of Engineering, Polytechnic Institute of Porto, Porto, Portugal

    Manuel F. Silva

  4. Faculty of Sciences and Technology, University of the Azores, Ponta Delgada, Portugal

    Armando Mendes

  5. Mechanical, Materials and Manufacturing Engineering (M3), Faculty of Engineering, University of Nottingham, Nottingham, UK

    Khaled Goher

  6. Faculty of Sciences and Technology, University of the Azores, Ponta Delgada, Portugal

    Matthias Funk

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Tanada, K., Inagaki, S., Murata, Y., Kato, R., Suzuki, T. (2023). Semi-autonomous Walking Control of a Hexapod Robot Based on Contact Point Planning and Follow-the-Contact-Point Gait Control. In: Cascalho, J.M., Tokhi, M.O., Silva, M.F., Mendes, A., Goher, K., Funk, M. (eds) Robotics in Natural Settings. CLAWAR 2022. Lecture Notes in Networks and Systems, vol 530. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-15226-9_28

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