An Insectomorphic Robot Overcoming Obstructions Formed by Isolated Cylinders

Abstract

Abstract A method of overcoming obstacles by a hexapod robot is developed. The obstacles are formed by single cylinders of large radii or by a set of spaced cylinders of small radii that lie on a horizontal plane under the action of the gravity force; the Coulomb friction and rolling friction are taken into account. It is proved that, if the radius of a single cylinder is comparable with the robot’s height, then such an obstacle can be overcome by imparting an appropriate initial angular velocity to the cylinder. The results of the computational experiments are discussed.