Development of Motion Control of Legs in Six-Legged Robotic Vehicle

The paper describes control structure for driving system of a leg in six-legged robot vehicle. It can walk using locked wheels or it can roll on unlocked wheels. The leg joints are driven by hydraulic actuating units. Two different control structures are analyzed - control of a hydraulic cylinder through a mechanical gear and a structure for control of two hydraulic cylinders through a double eccentric gear mechanism. For control of the actuating units a conventional cascade structure with PI controllers completed by pre-compensation of controlled and observed variables is used. The performance of the structure has been proved on experimental stand and the experimental results are reported.