Patent ID: 7339340
Filing Date: 2008-03-04
Classification: B62D

Abstract:
1. A robot comprising: a robot body having a front half and a rear half and each half having opposing sides; a rotatable and driven three-degree-of-freedom articulating joint interconnecting the front half and rear half of the robot body and movable in an x,y,z movement; a plurality of multi-limbed legs extending from each side at each half of the robot body such that at least four multi-limbed legs extend from the front half and at least four multi-limbed legs extend from the rear half, each leg having a foot adapted to engage a ground surface to form a separate support polygon for each half of the robot body, each leg having driven limbs and joints to form said multi-limbed leg wherein each of said front half and rear half of the robot body can rotate about the articulating joint such that legs from one half can engage a surface as a support polygon that is opposite and vertically aligned with another surface to which legs from the other half engage; and an adaptive hierarchical controller operative with each leg and forming a layered behavioral control that includes a pose control layer that accounts for position and orientation with respect to a support polygon, a localized terrain follower layer that maps posture relative to terrain, a force control layer that accounts for ground contact within specified limits, and step generator layer that determines direction and magnitude of locomotion and translates trajectory to specific limb motions, wherein the controller is operative for