Leg Spring Parameters Design for a Six-Legged Walking Robot

This paper studies the leg spring parameters design problem for the modular leg mechanism of a six-legged walking robot. The performance metrics and design concept of the six-legged walking robot are proposed primarily. The modular planar leg mechanism with two degrees of freedom is designed based on the pantograph mechanism, and parameters are determined by the workspace analysis considering the walking speed and the maximum step barrier height. Parallel spring is configured on the leg mechanism to reduce the peak output joint torque, and the optimal spring parameters are derived by the proposed method. The effectiveness of the leg spring design method is then verified by simulations carried out with different spring stiffness.