Robotic exploration of surfaces and its application to legged locomotion

It is noted that material properties like penetrability, compliance, and surface roughness are important in the characterization of the environment. The authors have designed and implemented exploratory procedures on a robotic system to actively explore a surface to extract its material properties. The exploratory procedures for exploration are integrated into an active perceptual scheme for legged locomotion. The perceptual scheme is designed around creating the ability for the robot to sense variations in terrain properties while it is walking, so that it may be able to avoid sinking, slipping, and falling due to unexpected changes in the terrain properties, and make suitable changes in its foot forces to continue locomotion. The active perceptual scheme is implemented by simulating a leg-ankle-foot system with a PUMA arm-compliant wrist-foot system and an accelerometer mounted on the foot to detect slip.<<ETX>>