Power System of a Multi-Legged Walking Vehicle

The power system of a legged vehicle is considerably more complex than the one used by a conventional land vehicle because of the wide range of power demands and the coordination and stability issues due to the large number of degrees of freedom. This paper is concerned with the conceptual and physical characteristics of the power system of a typical rough terrain six legged walking vehicle. Detailed analytical and simulation models are developed for the vehicle power system consisting of the prime mover, energy storage system, mechanical drives, hydraulic actuation systems and the control systems. Modeling techniques and design concepts pertaining to such systems have been developed to study the complex interactions between the mechanical, hydraulic and computer systems. Validation of the models is provided by several experiments performed on the vehicle prototype. The models and concepts can be easily extended to similar vehicles and robotic systems.