Optimal Design of Klann-linkage based Walking Mechanism for Amphibious Locomotion on Water and Ground

Abstract

Walking mechanisms are very important for legged robots to ensure their stable locomotion. In this research, Klannlinkage is suggested as a walking mechanism for a water-running robot and is optimized using level average analysis. The structure of the Klann-linkage is introduced first and design variables for the Klann-linkage are identified considering the kinematic task of the walking mechanism. Next, the design problem is formulated as a path generation optimization problem. Specifically, the desired path for the foot-pad is defined and the objective function is defined as the structural error between the desired and the generated paths. A process for solving the optimization problem is suggested utilizing the sensitivity analysis of the design variables. As a result, optimized lengths of Klann-linkage are obtained and the optimum trajectory is obtained. It is found that the optimized trajectory improves the cost function by about 62% from the initial one. It is expected that the results from this research can be used as a good example for designing legged robots.Keywords: water-running robot, Klann-mechanism, level average analysis, optimal design, orthogonal array

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