A six-legged walking machine, the Adaptive Suspension Vehicle (ASV), is being built to show that a legged vehicle can have better mobility and fuel economy than conventional wheeled and tracked vehicles in rough terrain. The research in this dissertation is directed at the design of the geometry of the vehicle with the emphasis on the leg geometry. In order to define the optimal walking volume (work space) of each leg as well as the overall walking volumes of the six legs, different gaits used by walking machines for level walking and for walking over some major types of obstacles are carefully studied. In each case of walking, walking volumes are optimized in order to maximize the vehicle's stability and mobility. Based on the resulting optimal walking volumes from gait study, two types of leg linkages are designed: a leg based on thef our-bar linkage and a leg based on the pantograph mechanism. In both leg designs, the leg linkages are optimized in various respects such as walking volume, compactness, foot trajectory and interference avoidance. After a careful comparison is made, the pantograph type leg is selected for The ASV. Finally, several types of ankle systems, including both active and passive systems, are discussed and comparisons are made. Based on the work described in this dissertation, a pantograph type breadboard leg was built and tested in the laboratory. The performance of this leg is satisfactory.
Kinematic optimal design ofa six-legged walking machine
Kinematisch optimale Konstruktion einer Gelaendemaschine mit sechs Schreitfuessen
1984
436 Seiten
Theses
English