Traversing the complicated terrain of an animal's natural environment is not difficult for a highly evolved creature. However, complex terrain can pose a great problem for legged robots, even those having undergone many cycles of evolutionary simulation. This is especially true for the potential for great sinkage and slippage of a walking robot when traversing the soil on other planets. This paper investigates the benefits of incorporating the deformation of soil under the feet of a walking robot as a feedforward input to the gait and leg controllers of the vehicle. It also introduces the implementation of the visco-elastic properties found in biological muscle into the joint controller of the walking robot and how this could be synchronised to the soil deformation inputs.
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