Lateral gait analysis of a crawling robot by means of controlling the lengths of links and friction in the supports

The present paper describes three developed designs of multi-link crawling robots intended for movement on rough surfaces with obstacles. The characteristic feature of the first design is the ability to control the friction coefficients in the supports of the central link, the second design is supplemented by the ability to lift off the side links in order to "step over" obstacles. The third design is distinguished by the ability to control the friction coefficients in the supports of all links, as well as the lengths of the links in addition to the implementation of the function "stepping over" obstacles. A comparative description of the implementation of the lateral gait by the robots of all the designs is presented. The operation of the control system for the lengths of the robot’s links is described, which is based on a sequential algorithm for changing the length of the first central link and then the side links when the central one reaches its shortest length.