A CPG-based locomotion control architecture for hexapod robot

This paper proposes a novel CPG-based control architecture for hexapod walking robot. We investigate the CPG systems from the perspective of network synchronization. In this way the motion control of hexapod robot can be refined into the gait generation level and joints coordination level. On the first level, we develop a gait generator consists of CPG network in ring based on modified Van der Pol (VDP) oscillator to realize various stable gaits as well as gait transition for hexapod walking. The limit cycle behavior of VDP model is analytically studied by virtue of perturbation technique. On the second level, we address the problem of multi-DoF coordination of single leg via phase order modulation and amplitude adjustment of the neural oscillators. Consequently we propose a single-leg controller consists of a three-coupled CPG network and a linear coefficient converter to generator smooth and feasible trajectories in task space. The effectiveness of the proposed control architecture is demonstrated through simulation and real physical robot experiment.