SpaceClimber: Developement of a Six-Legged Climbing Robot for Space Exploration
Sebastian Bartsch, Timo Birnschein, Florian Cordes, Daniel Kuehn, Peter Kampmann, Jens Hilljegerdes, Steffen Planthaber, Malte Langosz, Frank Kirchner
In Proceedings for the joint conference of ISR 2010 (41st Internationel Symposium on Robotics) and ROBOTIK 2010 (6th German Conference on Robotics), (ISR-2010), 07.6.-09.6.2010, Munich, VDE Verlag GmbH, Jun/2010. ISBN: 978-3-8007-3273-9.
Abstract
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In the recent past, multi-legged robots have demonstrated a very high mobility in rough und uneven terrain. In comparison to wheeled and tracked vehicles they provide a superior flexibility in their locomotor system. They are able to walk omnidirectionally, turn on the spot, and walk curves with variable radius. The fact that the foot looses ground contact in the swing phase of a step cycle allows them to surmount obstacles and to avoid the "bulldozing effect" wheeled and tracked systems have to grapple with on loose substrates. The ability to shift their center of mass by changing the posture (e.g. crouch/stretch or lean backward/forward) without suffering the loss of mobility also enables them to master steep inclines.