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Development of the six‐legged walking and climbing robot SpaceClimber
Author(s) -
Bartsch Sebastian,
Birnschein Timo,
Römmermann Malte,
Hilljegerdes Jens,
Kühn Daniel,
Kirchner Frank
Publication year - 2012
Publication title -
journal of field robotics
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.152
H-Index - 96
eISSN - 1556-4967
pISSN - 1556-4959
DOI - 10.1002/rob.21418
Subject(s) - climbing , robot , computer science , control engineering , simulation , artificial intelligence , engineering , structural engineering
In this article, we present SpaceClimber,1 a six‐legged, bio‐inspired, energy‐efficient and adaptable free‐climbing robot for mobility on steep gradients. The long‐term stool is to provide a system for extraterrestrial surface exploration missions, paying special attention to mobility in lunar craters to retrieve or analyze scientific samples from the interior of these craters. We present an envisaged mission for SpaceClimber and summarize the deriving system requirements. The robot's morphology determination procedure is depicted, considering the predefined demands and utilizing a simulation environment in combination with evolutionary optimization strategies, followed by a detailed description of the system's hardware design. The theoretical concept for the control of such machines with an extensive sensory–motor configuration is explained, as well as the implemented locomotion control approach and attempts to optimize the behavior of the robot using machine learning techniques. In addition, the experimental plant that was built for testing and evaluating the performance of the developed system in an environment as realistic as possible is introduced, followed by a description of the experiments performed. Concluding, we summarize the results and experiences and give an outlook on further developments. © 2012 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.