Legged Locomotion Over Rough Terrain

This project is an investigation of legged robotic locomotion over uneven terrain. The main focus of the experiment is to measure on the efficiency of various configurations of legs vs wheels when traversing uneven terrains. The legs and wheels were tested on terrains with varying degrees of unevenness.  The data showed that while wheeled robots perform better on terrains with a low level of unevenness, the legged robots are more efficient over more rough terrain. Further research into legged locomotion can help develop more advanced robots such as BigDog and RHex by Boston Dynamics that have applications in moving goods and people over rough terrain where a traditional wheeled vehicle are not able to traverse. Such vehicles can also be used to move through dangerous disaster zones containing rubble and even to explore the surface of other planets.