Behavior-based gait execution for the Dante II walking robot

Abstract

The Dante project is developing walking robots to explore inside volcanic craters. These robots face many challenges including generating a walking gait in rough, obstacle-filled terrain. For the walking robot Dante II, we implemented a gait controller to address this situation. Our approach is embodied in a network of asynchronous processes that establish a fundamental gait cycle while maintaining body posture, and reacting to bumps and slips. We describe our implementation, and its relation to similar behavioral approaches, and discuss Dante II's performance during testing and on its descent into Mount Spurr.