Mechanical Design and Gait Optimization of Hydraulic Hexapod Robot Based on Energy Conservation

• Main Authors: Shou Zhai, Bo Jin, Yilu Cheng
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: MDPI AG 2020-06-01
• Series: Applied Sciences
• Subjects: motion analysis; mechanical engineering; genetic algorithm; simulation
• Online Access: https://www.mdpi.com/2076-3417/10/11/3884

Minimizing energy consumption is significant for the hydraulic walking robot to reduce its power unit weight and increase working hours. However, most robot leg designs are inefficient due to their bio-mimetic or mission-specific mechanical structure. This paper presents a structural optimization method of the hydraulic walking robot by optimizing its mechanical structure and gait parameters simultaneously. The mathematical model of the total power of the hydraulic hexapod robot (HHR) is established, which is derived based on a general template for designing the hydraulic walking robot. The archive-based micro genetic algorithm (AMGA) is used to optimize the highly nonlinear multi-constraint multi-objective optimizations. In the optimal solution, the energy consumption of the HHR has reduced more than 40% by comparison with the original mechanical structure and gait parameter. Design sensitivity analysis is carried out to determine the regulation of mechanical structure, and a virtual prototype is used to verify the effectiveness of the proposed methods.