Effect of leg inertia on dynamics of sliding-leg hexapods

In this paper the effect of leg inertia on hexapod dynamics is investigated . Hexapods under investigation are a new type that is made of sliding legs with constant lengths. A complete dynamic model of sliding-leg hexapods is developed including leg inertia. Based on this dynamic model, the effect of leg inertia on hexapod dynamics is investigated in terms of Two parameters . The first parameter is the ratio of the total leg mass to the mass of the moving platform, and the second parameter is the acceleration of the movin g platform. Numerical studies reveal that the effect of leg inertia may be negligible at low speeds, but becomes significant at high speeds. Hence, le g inertia must be included for modeling hexapod dynamics for high-speed app lications.