Authors:
Paula Mollá-Santamaría
1
;
Adrián Peidró
1
;
Arturo Gil
1
;
Óscar Reinoso
1
;
2
and
Luis Payá
1
Affiliations:
1
Instituto de Investigación en Ingeniería de Elche (I3E), Universidad Miguel Hernández de Elche, Avda. de la Universidad s/n, Edificio Innova, 03202 Elche, Alicante, Spain
;
2
ValgrAI: Valencian Graduate School and Research Network of Artificial Intelligence, Camí de Vera s/n, Edificio 3Q, 46022 Valencia, Spain
Keyword(s):
Path Planning, Support Planning, Stability, Non-Coplanar Contacts, Walking Robot.
Abstract:
In this paper we study the simultaneous planning of the path and leg supports of an eight-legged robot on uneven terrain. We use the A-star algorithm (A*), which searches for the shortest path between two points. First, the terrain is modelled with a triangular mesh and the triangles are subdivided to take the centroids of these triangles as the search space of the A*. Secondly, with respect to the original A*, the stability of the robot at each centroid is considered, so that the cost at a centroid is penalised if the robot is unstable (i.e., the robot slips and/or tips over), or the cost is zero if it is stable. The stability at each contact point is determined by calculating that the ground reaction at that point is contained in a linear approximation of the friction cone. Finally, the path, the contact points of each leg, as well as the robot’s posture at each position are obtained.