Stability analysis of a hexapod robot driven by distributed nonlinear oscillators with a phase modulation mechanism

Abstract

In this paper, we investigated the dynamics of a hexapod robot model whose legs are driven by nonlinear oscillators with a phase modulation mechanism including phase resetting and inhibition. This mechanism changes the oscillation period of the oscillator depending solely on the timing of the foot's contact. This strategy is based on observation of animals. The performance of the controller is evaluated using a physical simulation environment. Our simulation results show that the robot produces some stable gaits depending on the locomotion speed due to the phase modulation mechanism, which are simillar to the gaits of insects.