Materials Today: Proceedings xxx (xxxx) xxx

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Materials Today: Proceedings

journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/matpr

Design, analysis, manufacturing of four-legged walking robot with insect

type leg
James P.M. ⇑, Amal Prakash, Virbhadrappa Kalburgi, Pramod Sreedharan
Department of Mechanical Engineering Amrita Vishwa Vidyapeetham, Amritapuri, India

a r t i c l e i n f o a b s t r a c t

Article history: There are different types of mobile robots used in the ground such as wheeled and legged. Wheeled
Received 27 September 2019 robots are much efficient in smooth terrain whereas in multi-terrain legged robots are much better.
Accepted 13 October 2020 There are from single to multiple legs robots are been made and four-leg has to be found much efficient
Available online xxxx
than other kinds of walking robots. This four-legged robots known as quadruped are much important in
walking robots which have better locomotion in the multi-terrain environment than wheel robots. They
Keywords: are dexterous and agile in multi-terrain environment loco-motion. There are many biological mechanism
Walking robots
and structure are available in nature we can use in our modeling Insect type legs are one of the structures.
Insect leg kinematics
Adams simulation
This structure is taken in mind to design robot legs of a walking robot. This paper deals with the kine-
Design of quadrupeds matic analysis along with mechanical design and manufacturing of an eight degree of freedom four-
Four-legged robot legged insect-type walking robot with two degrees of freedom of each leg.
Ó 2019 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
Selection and peer-review under responsibility of the scientific committee of the International Confer-
ence on Advances in Materials and Manufacturing Applications.

1. Introduction the first computer-controlled robot was built by the University of

Quadruped robots are an important place in robotics and their
popularity are increasing. There are different types of mobile
robots are available are used in different many application. And
comparing legged robots with wheeled robots legged robots are
dexterous and can be loco-mated in the multi-terrain environment
easily then wheeled robots. where wheeled robots are easy to con-
trol than legged robots which have many joints to control. Because
of the complex structure, in leg robotics which leads to a higher
instructional in terms of robotics and control theory than a
wheeled robot. In order to control the robot, a better dynamic
model has to be made to control forces and acceleration. In order
to create a walking robot with better efficiency leg design is taken
care as than designing a horse type leg for the robot to consider the
efficiency of a leg of a robot during walking [1]. we designed leg as
an insect type as told in the paper of The study about consideration
of feasible walking mechanism the efficiency during different
velocities of the robot as been plotted and proved the efficiency
of the insect type legs are good in power consumption and adapt-
ability than horse type legs [1]. In the history of the walking robots,
⇑ Corresponding author.
E-mail address: jamespmnayak@gmail.com (P.M. James).
California by McGhee in 1968 from that time many researchers
are focusing on developing an adaptable walking machine towards
locomotion [2]. From then many new models of walking robot has
come still the advancement in research is going on to develop a
feasible walking machine we can see robots like big dog from Bos-
ton dynamics having a 20 Dof freedom in that can walk on rough
terrain environments and Cheetah from MIT university [6] is also
one of the advanced quadruped robots can walk run and advance
terrain locomotion. Actuation system used in those robots are
not only motor actuation some advance walking robots used differ-
ent actuation in order to produce more force at joint hydraulic
actuation system is used in ANYmal ETH. Due to the advance loco-
motion, strategies from we can able to mimic from animals [10]
walking robots can be made much more efficiently in multi-
terrain locomotion and adaptability to rough and smooth terrain
[7,8].
A brief study about the walking robot has been made concept
design of each part of the robot has been modeled in a cad software
which relays on the information gathered from the past works
which have been done on the walking robots. Kinematic analysis
has made by using DH algorithm to detect the forward and inverse
kinematics. Dynamic analysis of the model has been made in the
simulation environment to know how the robot will react in

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.matpr.2020.10.286
2214-7853/Ó 2019 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
Selection and peer-review under responsibility of the scientific committee of the International Conference on Advances in Materials and Manufacturing Applications.

Please cite this article as: P.M. James, A. Prakash, V. Kalburgi et al., Design, analysis, manufacturing of four-legged walking robot with insect type leg, Mate-
rials Today: Proceedings, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.matpr.2020.10.286
P.M. James, A. Prakash, V. Kalburgi et al. Materials Today: Proceedings xxx (xxxx) xxx

real-world while the gait position for walking has been supplied to
the joints. And prototyping of the cad design of the model has car-
ried out with prototyping material to show the concept design.
In this paper researchers from Amrita Vishwa Vidyapeethaam
are focusing on developing a feasible walking vehicle in house
which can adapt to any terrain this paper deals with the first phase
of the development of the walking robot with insect legs this
papers divided into five-phase 2nd deals with design description
of the model and 3rd kinematic analysis and 4th Dynamic simula-
tion using ADAMS and 5th and 6th deals with concept model pro-
totyping and

2. Design illustrations of quadruped

Design of the robot legs is inspired by insects [10] as research

and it is more efficient than horse type legs mainly used on other
robots. The robot consists of Torso and four legs of having one
degree of freedom hip joint attached with the torso to the femur
Fig. 2. Cad model of the articulated leg of the robot.
and one degree of freedom knee joint to the tibia. The torso is
designed in such a way it can carry a payload in locomotion.
Solid-works is used to make a novel design of a walking robot with
insect type legs Fig. 1. Legs are designed with like connected struc-
ture in order to reduce the weight of leg as shown in Fig. 2. The 3. Kinematic analysis of quadruped leg
main objective of the design is to locomote in a multi-terrain envi-
ronment with less energy efficient. There are many factors benefi- 3.1. Forward kinematics
cial for increasing legs in walking robot better passive stability can
be achieved then robots which having less than three legs. When Kinematic analysis of a single leg has been made using D H algo-
you increase the number of legs instructional terms increases rithm it is a simple method to represent and solve kinematics by
which need high power than fewer legs which can do the same using link lengths, joints offset, offset angles by using this method
work so to increase the better stability and increase power effi- FK frame of a single leg has been made as shown in Fig. 3 [9,11]
ciency robot has been built with four legs with two degrees of free- (Table 1)
dom per each leg [12]. Fig. 2 front view of the model clearly shows The table above represents a DH parameter to be inputted in the
the design of an articulated insect leg where the knee joint is above transformation matrix of a link.
the hip joint where the whole leg is designed like complex links T (0–1) *T (1–2) = T (0–2)
attached together.

Fig. 1. Cad model of the quadruped robot.

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P.M. James, A. Prakash, V. Kalburgi et al. Materials Today: Proceedings xxx (xxxx) xxx

Fig. 3. DH frame of a single leg.

Table 1
DH parameter of a leg.
and in other robots which need to be actively stabilizing to walk
h a L d its also called dynamic stabilization. By using this passive stabiliza-
1 h1 90 l1 d1 tion gait where three legs are always supported in the ground one
2 h2 0 l2 0
leg will swing forward and place it drag backward due to this force
body will be moved forward. During this gait, the center of mass
should be always lying inside the body of the robot [3] (Fig. 4.
cosðh1 Þcosðh2 Þ
sinðh2 Þcosðh2 Þ sinðh1 Þ Fig. 5)
ðl1 þ l2cosðh2 ÞÞcosðh1 Þ To carry out the dynamic analysis of the robot ADAMS a multi-
T ð0
2Þ sinðh1 Þcosðh2 Þ
sinðh1 Þsinðh1 Þ
cosðh1 Þ body dynamics software is used to find the torque required for the
ðl1 þ l2cosðh2 ÞÞsinðh1 Þ joints to move the body as shown in Fig. 7. The trotting gate is used
sinðh2 Þ cosðh2 Þ 0 l2sinðh2 Þ þ d to simulate a model in Adams tort gait algorithm is shown in Fig. 6
software is useful in Analysing different parameters in a simulation
ð1Þ
like torque angular acceleration trajectory etc for each joint is dur-
ing simulation in environment results are plotted in Fig. 8. From
3.2. Inverse kinematics this its shown during walking the robot need 4.5 nm torque for
hip joints and 2 nm for knee joints. The parameters should be set
Inverse kinematics solution for the single leg is derived from the in the software correctly to get the maximum errorless output val-
forward kinematics in the above equation. ues from the MSc ADAMS.

1
hð2Þ ¼ sin ðpz
d1 =l2Þ ð2Þ
5. Manufacturing of quadruped robot

1
hð2Þ ¼ sin ðpy=ðl1 þ l2 cosh2 ÞÞ ð3Þ
For the prototyping the concept of design, the prototype has
been manufactured with acrylic material and wood. Acrylic mate-
4. Dynamic analysis of quadruped robot rial which is very light and durable of 4 mm thickness has bought
cut into pieces which are designed and fused together with the
There are different gait patterns available for the walking in help of strong bond by using laser-cutter assembled as shown in
robotics in some robot need passively stabilizing during walking Fig. 9, Fig. 10 [4,5].

Fig. 4. Tripod gait pattern.

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P.M. James, A. Prakash, V. Kalburgi et al.
Fig. 5. Simulated model in MSc Adams.
Fig. 6. Plotted graphs in MSc Adams.
The main aim of the project is to design and develop a walking
robot with insect type legs novel design has been made for proof of
concept robot has been prototyped future work includes imple-
menting an adaptive controller for the robot to stabilize in uneven
terrain locomotion and manufacturing in to real model and testing
the adaptability towards different terrain. There many applications
for walking robot surveillance, assistance and so on their agility in
trajectory planning makes them stand out from the wheeled
robots. Future works include making an adaptive controller for
the robot for multi-terrain exploration.
6. Conclusion
Quadruped robots which are gaining attention now days have
to be further developed by giving the adaptive knowledge towards
terrain locomotion and can be programmed with a better dynamic
model for super dexterous capabilities the project vision is to
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Materials Today: Proceedings xxx (xxxx) xxx
develop a walking robot prototype with a novel design which has
to be further developed. Future work includes implementing an
adaptive controller for the robot to stabilize in uneven terrain loco-
motion has to been done to collect datas for improving real-world
locomotion. The model has to be tested with adaptability towards
different terrain. There many applications for walking robot
surveillance, industrial inspection in mining exploration, assistive
robots and so on. Their agility in trajectory planning makes them
stand out from the wheeled robots. The current version os the
model which works well in normal terrain and further evolved to
above mentioned.
Declaration of Competing Interest
The authors declare that they have no known competing finan-
cial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared
to influence the work reported in this paper.
P.M. James, A. Prakash, V. Kalburgi et al. Materials Today: Proceedings xxx (xxxx) xxx

Fig. 7. Assembled parts of a laser cutter.

Fig. 8. Assembled Quadruped robot.

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P.M. James, A. Prakash, V. Kalburgi et al.
Further Reading
[1] Queiroz, Carlos, Gonalves, Nuno, 2000, 09, A Study on Static Gaits for a Four-
Legged Robot.
[2] D.J. Todd, Walking machines – an introduction to legged robots, Walking
machines – an introduction to legged robots, Kogan Page Ltd., London (1985).
Materials Today: Proceedings xxx (xxxx) xxx
[3] M.H. Raibert, I.E. Sutherland, Machines that Walk, Sci. Am. 248 (2) (1983) 44–
53.
[4] M.H. Raibert, Legged Robots that Balance, MIT Press. Cambridge,
Massachusetts, 1985.
[5] J.S. Glower, G. Ozguner. 1986. Control of a quadruped trot. IEEE Conference on
Robotics and Automation. San Fransisco: 1496-1501.