Gait planning for legged robots

Trajectory planning is important to the motion control of a manipulator. For a legged robot, trajectory planning of the body motion is important when the robot needs to perform complex maneuvering. The execution of the body motion relies on a series of leg movements called gait. Thus, gait planning is required before the motion can be executed. To achieve animal-like maneuvering on rough terrain, a legged robot may use different gaits to ensure stability and mobility. In such cases gait planning is more complex and must be carefully planned. In this paper, gait planning for a quadruped and a hexapod walking with changes of gait, duty factor and motion direction are studied. The gaits under consideration include the wave gaits, the modified wave gaits and the follow-the-leader gaits. The simulation results are illustrated with computer graphics.