Biologically Inspired Robot Design and Modeling

In this paper we present results from the DARPA sponsored robotic project Scorpion. The eight-legged walking robot was modeled, constructed, and programmed in a way that was in many kinds inspired by biological topics. This aspect in robot design is the main focus here, e.g. a physical model for 8-legged walking with continously changing speed is derived from biological observations. Compared to a classical model from a biological paper, our approach turns out to be more consistent and more practical for walking machines.