Versatile FPGA-based locomotion platform for legged robots

Abstract

Usually, most mobile robots have been equipped with wheels because they are easy to control but they require a flat surface on which to operate. Walking machines have been proposed to overpass the limits of wheeled systems by looking at legged solutions in nature. Legged systems can be slow and more difficult to design and operate with respect to wheeled machines. These robots present dozens of degrees of freedom that must be controlled with ability, flexibility and energy efficiency. Under this scenario, a versatile FPGA platform for legged robot is presented. The platform is able to control servomotors through pulse-width modulation (PWM) signals that are usually used to control these kind of motors. The proposed platform is powerful in terms of locomotion capabilities, concurrency and coordination. The platform modules work in parallel and will be synchronized by a soft-processor through a C-based application. Physical testing based on Phoenix hexapod robot and CPG-based locomotion control has confirmed the locomotion hardware platform functionality. The implementation provides flexibility to add more custom modules for different kind of sensors, suitable for autonomous locomotion and the implementation is feasible to be used in different robots.