HEXAPODR effective and efficient means of detecting and

removing mines while ensuring the safety of local

OBOTS
residents and people engaged in the removal work.
Hence, insect movement with legs is considered
most stable. The present paper proposes an
improved six-legged walking robot.
Initially, the scientists were particularly interested
in the stick insect as models since the leg
movement is based on a decentralized architecture,
in which legs coordinate with each other by means
of inter segmental connectivity. But, now-a-days
research work is being carried out on different
shapes of robots having four, six, eight legged
robots. Among all these robots, cockroach-like
hexapod robot is given the particular importance,
because of its remarkable running and climbing
capabilities and because much is known about its
ABSTRACT: biomechanics and control. Cockroach is considered

This paper emphasis the need for developing the to be the fastest land animal in the world. Taking
legged robots rather than wheeled robots. Among this as a cue, cockroach movements were discussed
these legged robots mentioned in this paper, we will in this paper.
particularly study about the cockroach-like hexapod
robot and it’s importance.
Over the undulated surfaces, robot movement with
wheels becomes difficult. For working and
exploring in unknown and rough terrain the use of
legged robots is advantageous because their
movement is less constrained by the shape of the
surface on which they have to travel. The anti-
personnel mines of over 100 million is injuring or
killing more than 2000 people a month. Under this
ultimate environment, a walking robot may be an
 the wheel. But, when the wheels fail to function
properly, legs become the more suitable solution for
moving in more demanding terrains. The legged
INTRODUCTION: robots are built to improve the speed and to climb
The basic need for transportation of material is the obstacle’s height easily.
satisfied with wheel movement for ages. All the The cockroach-like hexapod is considered to be the
robots have been designed for their movements in best-legged robot now a day because of its
the similar fashion. In the industries, movements on capability of running fast and climbing. The robot is
a straight path normally are done on automatic designed with five, four, and three degrees of
guided vehicles (A.G.V’s) with sensors on touch/no freedom in the front, middle and rear legs,
touch. respectively, to permit it to mimic the different
A substantial portion of the Earth is inaccessible to functions of cockroach legs.
wheeled mechanisms—natural obstacles like large
rocks, loose soil, deep ravines, and steep slopes 1. Robot movements
conspire to render rolling locomotion ineffective. Wheel movement had been there since
The sea floor, moon, and planets are similarly long making the mechanical design
challenging. In natural terrains, legs are often simpler. Wheel movement has got it’s
superior to wheels; they avoid undesirable own problems as it encounters on
footholds and make discrete contacts where wheels undulated surfaces of mounts and valleys.
must propel with continuous rolling contact. One of The below figure –1 indicates some of the
the most versatile vehicle architecture for working wheel movement based robots.
on rough terrain is a legged vehicle. This is true
because, walking machines only require non–
continuous spots of solid ground for moving;
whereas wheeled vehicles normally need large
continuous extensions of relatively flat surface to
move. There are a number of simple legged robots
whose foot trajectories are fixed to follow a certain
route for swing (or return stroke) and stance (or
power stroke). These types of vehicles are not so
FIGURE-1 Wheel based movement robots
different from wheeled vehicles, as the behaviour of
their legs could be interpreted as a special type of
 2. Stick insect:
A robot based on the stick insect nervous system is
The problems are: divided into four main sections. Three are located in
 The wheels need a continuous path the thorax and the other most sophisticated is
of terrain. located in the head. The brain acts as an overriding
 Even with a passive suspension, control of the robot control of reflex and spontaneous lower level
remains very complex. behaviours for walking. The thorax is further

 To be able to feel the terrain in divided in three main sections as shown in figure,

front of the robot, it should have complex the prothorax, which is the one closest to the head;

vision system. the mesothorax located in the middle; and the

The below figure-2 gives the cockroach metathorax, which is the hind part of the thorax.

based robot designed by one of the foreign Each section has a ganglion controlling legs on that

companies. thoracic segment; these ganglions a pair of bilateral

connectives to other ganglions in the thorax. Each
leg is basically composed of four major segments.
The coxa, which is joined to the thorax, moves the
whole leg forward and backward. The next segment
is composed of two fused segments, the trochanter
and the femur. For simplicity, these segments are
grouped together and called the femur. The tibia is
the last of the long segments. The last segment is
FIGURE-2 Cockroach movement based
the tarsus, which could be called the insect foot.
robot
The tarsus is in charge of grasping and holding and
Legged robots have many attractive
therefore could provide an increase in balance and
advantages over wheel robots:
information about ground contact.
1. Legs only need discontinuous points of
support.
2. Legs are more flexible than wheels.
3. Legs can have multi link movements
by which height can be adjusted as per
requirement.
 The below figures-3 (a), 3(b) are the parts of the 1)
body of a six legged stick insect
2) a. Rear legs:
During normal walking, rear legs move primarily in
the horizontal plane. The body-coxa doesn’t move a
lot. The coxa-femur and the femur-tibia are a hinge
joint that moves of 70 degrees. These joints
contribute in pushing the body towards the forward
movement.
When a cockroach tries to climb an obstacle, it
inclines its body to reach the top of the obstacle.
FIGURE-3 (a) Stick insect 3(b) This situation is dangerous because the centre of
Parts of hind leg gravity can fall outside the polygon (formed by
middle leg and hind leg) of support.
3. Hexapod movements (Cockroach): Figure-5 (a) below indicates the climbing
A hexapod is a 6-legged walker. Figure-4 indicates movement of the six-legged insect.
the typical cockroach with six legs.

FIGURE-5 (a) First phase of climbing

To prevent this, they rotate their rear legs around
the longitudinal axis to increase the polygon of
support determined by the legs. Figure-5 (b)
indicates the extension hind leg during climbing for
keeping the body within the centre of gravity.
FIGURE-4 Obverse side
of cockroach
Legs in insects have four segments: the coxa,
the femur, the tibia and the tarsus.
 during normal walking. Cockroaches use their front
legs as probes to map the terrain in front of them.

4.1Cockroaches Strategies:
FIGURE-5 (b) second phase of climbing Cockroaches don’t only have 3 specialized pair of
with the hind legs taken backward. legs, they also have important characteristics:

b. Middle legs:
 Change in Walking Speed:
The joints of the middle legs are similar to those of
In order to walk faster, the cockroach increases the
the rear legs. Value of the body-coxa angle is larger
velocity of joint movement, in
in middle legs than in the rear legs but coxa-femur
particular in the stance phase (depression and
and femur-tibia are smaller in the middle legs.
extension of joints).
During climbing, middle legs produce large vertical
 Turning:
forces to push the body up, until the front legs reach
In order to turn, the cockroach must create a
the obstacle. When the front legs are on the top, a
mismatch in joint movement in the right and left
middle leg and its opposite rear leg vault the body
legs that at any given time is generating forward-
up the obstacle. To achieve this the middle legs
directed force. This can be accomplished by
need to rotate from the horizontal plane to the
altering the velocity of movement in the middle leg
vertical plane.
relative to the activity of the rear leg of the same
tripod. For example, to turn to the right the animal
c. Front legs:
would increase the activity in the left middle leg
The femur and tibia move primarily in a sagittal
relative to the right rear leg. However, if the
plane and don’t exert important lateral forces during
alternate tripod were on the ground it would turn
climbing, turning and straight-line running. The
towards the middle leg by decreasing activity in the
coxa and the femur can be modeled as a single
right middle leg relative to the left rear leg. Thus,
segment as the coxa-femur only moves of 8
the middle legs play an important role in turning the
degrees.
animal. They are also critical to changes in body
Front legs don’t play an important role in the
attitude during climbing.
locomotion or the climbing ability of cockroaches.
Front legs produce 4 times less force than rear legs
  Workspaces: In order to climb over a barrier, the cockroach first
Cockroaches’ legs have large and overlapping appears to measure the height of the object. It then
workspaces. This gives the cockroaches more pitches its body up and finally extends its legs
robustness as the rear legs can do a part of the forcefully to push it up and over the obstacle. In
middle legs work, etc. Figure-6 shows the order to alter the attitude of the body for the climb,
workspace and the polygon made by hind leg the middle legs are rotated so that the tibia is more
movement. perpendicular to the substrate. Once this is done,
extension of the middle leg will pitch the animal up
in preparation for the climbing movement. The
rotation of the tibia occurs via a combination of
movements at the body-coxa (BC) and trochanter-
femur (TF) joints. Both the TF joint and the BC
joint of the middle leg are located at an angle, so
that movement of the BC joint will rotate the leg
segments distal to the joint. Because both of these
joints are located proximally on the leg, relatively
small movements at the BC joint can result in large
FIGURE-6 Large polygon support rotations at the tibia and tarsus. The contraction of
made by hind legs. the BC joint rotates the coxa along its long axis.
This movement is very different from the

 Sprawled stance: movement that occurs in the front and rear legs

When cockroaches walk, they adopt a sprawled where contraction of that joint causes the coxa to

stance, this contributes to obtain a large polygon of rock forward, increasing the angle between the coxa

support, keep the center of mass as low as possible and body as viewed from the side. Once the animal
and as close to the slope as possible when climbing. has reared up, it can then extend its rear legs
 Running: forcefully to push it up and over the barrier.

By observing cockroaches running, we can find,

their center of mass bounces unlike actual walking
robots & they run dynamically at high speed by
using a bipedal motion (on the two rear legs).
 Climbing:
 Simulatio
ns

Mechanical Design
FIGURE-7 Leg liftingElectronics
for Programming
climbing

Prototype Prototype
Diagram of a cockroach moving from a standing
Prototype
position (dark shading) to an elevated position
(light shading) in preparation for climbing. The
Assembling
critical
movement is a rotation of the middle leg that
Evaluation
redirects the extension of that leg to
lift the animal upward.
Modificatio
All this process is not static at some points; fewer
ns
than 3 legs are on the ground.

Conclusions
4.2 Design:
FIGURE-8 Flow sheet for
Taking all the bionics into consideration the
integrated robotism
scientists around the world are concentrating
Designing a robot requires a lot of planning.
towards the process of designing a hexapod robot
Simulations can be used to model the whole robot
based on cockroach movement. The flow sheet
before building it. Prototypes can also be used
given below indicates basic simulation for
where fine calibrations were necessary. Based on
designing cockroach movement based robot. Figur-
the data from the simulations and the prototypes,
8 below indicates the general flow sheet followed in
the final plan is made. A six-leg design is statically
a robot design.
stable: 3 legs can be in the air when the 3 other legs
Various general assumptions support the weight of the robot inside a stable
triangle.

Observation of cockroach
movements and recording
 4.3 Mechanical Design:
Mechanical design comprises two basic information
namely, body design as well as leg movement
design. In a simple mechanical design it is designed
basically for a three axis movement and in further
complicated design we can go as high as 64 axis the climbing ability of the robot. Again, these legs
movement taking into consideration of simulation
of total cockroach leg movement. This mechanical
design can be divided into the following such as:
 Dead weight of about 10kg
 Design of legs and leg linkages
 Motor power design needed for leg movement
 Sensors needed for height measurement and leg
movement for rising or lowering
 Leg and body material selection.
4.4 DOF in Each Leg:
 Front legs:
As demonstrated by the observations
cockroaches, front legs operate primarily in the
saggital plane. Then, the front legs only need two
DOFs, one for the coax femur articulation and
another for the femur-tibia articulation.
 Middle legs:
As for the front legs, they need two DOFs for the
coxa-femur and the femur tibia articulations. In
disadvantages that lead to bad performances.
cockroaches, the middle legs operate in two
different planes, horizontal during normal walking
and vertical during climbing. A third DOF is then
needed to go from normal walking to climbing.
This DOF rotates the middle legs around the lateral
axis.
 Rear legs:
Unlike the middle legs, observations showed that
the rear legs don’t need a rotational axis around the
lateral axis. But, the climbing operation needs a
third DOF around the longitudinal axis to improve
need the coxa-femur and femur-tibia articulations.
4.5 Mass Estimation:
The mass of the robot varies according to the mass
of the motors, dead weight of the leg-body and
other devices to be carried by this.
4.6 Kinematics:
Forward kinematics, finding the position of the foot
by using the angular position of the motors, of the
leg is used to make correct the trajectory of the foot
and to find, when an obstacle is hit, the relative
position of this obstacle.
Inverse kinematics, finding the angular position of
of the motors by using the desired ended position, is
used to make the foot move along a trajectory.
Various formulas needed in the regard are available
in the Internet particularly in the sites given below.
5. Problems Found In Present
Hexapods:
Walking robots have many
1. The forward motion motor in the majority of the
existing designs is not optimized to work on slope
of more than 30 degrees. This is because engineers
try to uncouple vertical and horizontal movements.
2. Designers implement climbing strategies that
keep the center of mass at a constant height.
3. Surmountable height in the majority of the
present designs is determined by the
Title must be in 24 pt Regular font. Author name must be
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length of the legs. Longer legs allow the robot to

TABLE I
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climb higher obstacles but
Font Appearance (in Time New Roman or Times)
lower the stability on a slope. Size Regular Bold Italic
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6. CONCLUSION: Small Caps), (partial)
figure caption,
It is clear that the usage of wheeled robots on the reference item
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undulated surfaces like in the exploration of (in Courier), body (also in Bold)
cell in a table
unknown planets and on the natural terrains like 10 level-1 heading (in level-2 heading,
Small Caps), level-3 heading,
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legged robots had become essential. Among all the 24 title
legged robots the cockroach shape based hexapod
All title and author details must be in single-column format
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Every word in a title must be capitalized except for short
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“from”, “if”, “in”, “into”, “on”, “or”, “of”, “the”, “to”, “with”.
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the aim of giving the readers an overall idea about A. Section Headings
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headings must be in 10pt font. Every word in a heading must
I acknowledge with thanks the team who ever has be capitalized except for short minor words as listed in
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prepared the above-mentioned material with such a
1) Level-1 Heading: A level-1 heading must be in Small
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Prof.D.V.R.Rajakumar who had guided me. Also
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3) Level-3 Heading: A level-3 heading must be indented,
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archive/macros/latex/contrib/supported/IEEEtran/
[8] FLEXChip Signal Processor (MC68175/D), Motorola, 1996.
[9] “PDCA12-70 data sheet,” Opto Speed SA, Mezzovico, Switzerland.
[10] A. Karnik, “Performance of TCP congestion control with rate
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[11] J. Padhye, V. Firoiu, and D. Towsley, “A stochastic model of TCP
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