A novel hexapod robot: Design and mobility analysis

Abstract

This paper presents a novel hexapod robot with legs radially free distributed around the body. Compared with radial symmetric or rectangular symmetric robots, the legs of radially free distributed hexapod robot can rotate around the body of the robot and redistribute their positions thanks to the proposed radially free distribution mechanism. The kinematic model of the articulated leg mechanism is obtained to reveal the relationship between the body movement and the joints movement. The enlarged workspace shows the superiorities of leg distribution in the application of hexapod robot. Then an analysis on the stability of the robot is addressed to verify the effectiveness of proposed radially free distribution mechanism in theory.