Design and Fabrication of Eight-Legged Kinematic Walker

As the wheels are ineffective on rough and rocky areas, therefore robot with one leg provided with Klan mechanism is beneficial for advanced walking vehicles. It can step over curbs, climb stairs or travel areas that are currently not accessible on wheels. The most important benefit of this mechanism is that, it does not require microprocessor control or large amount of actuator mechanisms. In this mechanism links are connected by pivot joints and convert the rotating motion of the crank into the movement of foot similar to that of animal walking. The proportions of each of the links in the mechanism are defined to optimize the linearity of the foot for one-half of the rotation of the crank. The remaining rotation of the crank allows the foot to be raised to a predetermined height before returning to the starting position and repeating the cycle. Two of these linkages coupled together at the crank and one-half cycle out of phase with each other will allow the frame of a vehicle to travel parallel to the ground. The project is useful in hazardous material handling, clearing minefields, or secures an area without putting anyone at risk. The military, law enforcement, Explosive Ordinance Disposal units, and private security firms could also benefit from applications of mechanical spider. It would perform very well as a platform with the ability to handle stairs and other obstacles to wheeled or tracked vehicles. The goal for this project is to create an eight-legged robot to test new walking algorithm. We loosely based our design on spider because there has an advanced way in robotics on Octopedal locomotion. Hopefully algorithm develops will be of use to robotics community and in future society.