Path generation of walking machines in 3D terrain

The path planning of legged locomotion is difficult in that not only the body trajectory but also the foot placement need to be considered. A general approach of path planning will fail in generating a feasible path for walking machines when facing the huge searching space of legged locomotion. In this paper, an effective method of path planning for 3D walking is introduced. The basic idea is that a feasible path is generated based on the terrain evaluation which produces an index of terrain complexity with respect to the machine mobility. The terrain evaluation is first carried out in a 2D space by considering the leg placement. The 2D terrain complexity is then modified according to the height's influence on the body motion for the 3D results. As an illustration, a feasible path is generated by applying the potential-guided searching technology to the 3D terrain complexity.