Review and synthesis of a walking machine (Robot) leg mechanism

¹ Mechanical Engineering Department, Mizan-Tepi University, Ethiopia
² Faculty of Science and Technology, University of Stavanger, Norway
³ School of Mechanical Engineering, Jimma University, Ethiopia

^* Corresponding author: Hirpa.g.lemu@uis.no

Abstract

A walking machine (robot) is a type of locomotion that operates by means of legs and/or wheels on rough terrain or flat surface. The performance of legged machines is greater than wheeled or tracked walking machines on an unstructured terrain. These types of machines are used for data collections in a variety of areas such as large agricultural sector, dangerous and rescue areas for a human. The leg mechanism of a walking machine has a different joint in which a number of motors are used to actuate all degrees of freedom of the legs. In the synthesis of walking machine reported in this article, the leg mechanism is developed using integration of linkages to reduce the complexity of the design and it enables the robot to walk on a rough terrain. The dimensional synthesis is carried out analytically to develop a parametric equation and the geometry of the developed leg mechanism is modelled. The mechanism used is found effective for rough terrain areas because it is capable to walk on terrain of different amplitudes due to surface roughness and aerodynamics.