Energy Efficiency of a Wheeled Bio-Inspired Hexapod Walking Robot in Sloping Terrain

Multi-legged robots, such as hexapods, have great potential to navigate challenging terrain. However, their design and control are usually much more complex and energy-demanding compared to wheeled robots. This paper presents a wheeled six-legged robot with five degrees of freedom, that is able to move on a flat surface using wheels and switch to gait in rugged terrain, which reduces energy consumption. The novel joint configuration mimics the structure of insect limbs and allows our robot to overcome difficult terrain. The wheels reduce energy consumption when moving on flat terrain and the trochanter joint reduces energy consumption when moving on slopes, extending the operating time and range of the robot. The results of experiments on sloping terrain are presented. It was confirmed that the use of the trochanter joint can lead to a reduction in energy consumption when moving in sloping terrain.