A new legged-robot configuration for research in force distribution

Force-controlled legged vehicles are the subject of worldwide research due to their intrinsic advantages in locomotion over different types of unstructured terrains. This paper presents a design for feet and ankles with an integrated sensor system to detect both force and contact surface orientation, thus enabling the implementation in a real legged robot of force optimization schemes that take into account these two interaction parameters. With such schemes, the robot can minimize the risk of foot slippage by computing a favorable set of foot forces to command to a force feedback control system. A walking robot was built based on this configuration, and its mechanics and control are also presented in this paper. (C) 2003 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.