Stair descent in the simple hexapod 'RHex'

Abstract

We present the first controller that allows our small hexapod robot, RHex, to descend a wide variety of regular sized, "real world" stairs. After selecting one of two sets of trajectories, depending on the slope of the stairs, our open-loop, clock-driven controllers require no further operator input nor task level feedback. Energetics for stair descent is captured via specific resistance values and compared to stair ascent and other behaviors. Even though the algorithms developed and validated in this paper were developed for a particular robot, the basic motion strategies, and the phase relationships between the contralateral leg pairs are likely applicable to other hexapod robots of similar size as well.