A Miniature Legged Hexapod Robot Controlled by a FPGA

Abstract

The preliminary design of a robot for future planetary space applications is presented. This hexapod robot has legs inspired by the spider, which it uses to manoeuvre across horizontal surfaces. Designed as a scientific platform for future research, mechanically, this robot is lightweight, compact and modular. A Field Programmable Gate Array (FPGA) is used as a controller, with one soft processor controlling each leg, adding additional modularity. This robot is shown to be capable of walking across horizontal surfaces, and future versions will be capable of climbing vertically, using bio-inspired dry adhesives.