DESIGN AND OPTIMIZATION OF A ONE-DEGREE-OF-FREEDOM 6-BAR LEG MECHANISM FOR A WALKING MACHINE

The design of a walking machine augmented with a one-degree-of-freedom leg mechanism is presented. This walking machine is capable of walkin g on various terrains with only three actuators. Unlike other existing leg mechanisms, the leg mechanism developed here generates a h-shaped foot path with a sufficient height for the walking machine to step ov er obstacles or to climb stairs. The design of such a leg mechanism is formulated as a multi-objective optimization problem. Optimization re sults show that a dramatic reduction in the mechanism size and a moder ate reduction in the actuating torque from the preliminary design can be accomplished. (C) 1997 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.