Optimization Design of Buffering and Walking Foot for Planetary Legged Robots

The legged robot has better adaptability to terrain in the process of moving and has been considered for future planetary exploration missions. As the part of direct contact with planet soil, the foot will directly affect movement performance and control effect of the legged robot. In this paper, the advantages and disadvantages of various foot configurations of ground legged robot are analyzed, and a coronal foot configuration is proposed. Based on the foot-terrain interaction mechanics model, the size of the coronal foot is optimized with the goal of anti-sinkage, anti-slip and light weight. Then, a high-performance coronal foot with two-stage buffering and touch sensing functions is designed. And the finite element analysis is carried out to verify the reliability of strength and stiffness of the foot in the ultimate working conditions. Finally, the anti-sinkage and tangential traction performance of the coronal foot is verified by quasi-static loading, loading with impact and tangential slip experiments.