Force control in locomotion of legged vehicle and body movement for mounting operations

A rectangular vehicle "Masha" and a hexagonal vehicle "Mag" are considered The vehicle "Mag" was developed at the Fraunhofer Institute for Factory Operation and automation. Both vehicle have six legs with three powered degrees of freedom each. Three component force sensor are mounted into the shanks. The control system of the robots consists of lower and upper levels. The position control system enables the computation of commanded motion of the leg tips and positional feedback. Force feedback is added to the positional control system. By using force information it becomes possible to solve a large number of tasks The force control is needed to rise the adaptability of the vehicle to irregular terrain to distribute the forces in locomotion over ridded and soft soil. Control of these foot forces makes it possible to move through a labyrinth or into a pipe. Force control of legs on locomotion and motion of body for technological operations have been developed and experimentally tested. I nformation about the main force and torque vectors acting on the body vehicle due to contact with an external object are used to perform assembly and drilling operations.