System Design and Implementation of Multi-legged Spider Robots for Landmine Detection in the Demilitarized Zone

As the Korean demilitarized zone(DMZ) has unique geological features and terrains, conventional wheel-based unmanned ground vehicles(UGVs) are hard to perform the landmine removal tasks. Compared to other types of robot platforms, multi-legged robots, which climb the inclined way and overcome the complex obstacles with lower contact area on the ground, have several advantages to perform landmine detection tasks in DMZ effectively. Thus, to exploit such benefits, in this paper, we propose the design schemes and gait methods of multi-legged spider robots. Especially, this paper presents the design and motion control of multi-legged spider robots with four and six legs. In detail, we implemented the design and motion control of multi-legged spider robots suitable for landmine detection in the DMZ by applying the gait algorithms on Arduino and Dynamixel servomotors. Our proposed algorithm and system design demonstrate that the proposed system design architecture enables operational flexibilities while walking in harsh conditions.