The ability of walking in a wide variety of terrainsis one of the most important features of hexapod insects. Inthis paper we describe a bio-inspired controller able to generatelocomotion and switch between different type of gaits for anhexapod robot.Motor patterns are generated by coupled Central Pattern Generatorsformulated as nonlinear oscillators. These patterns aremodulated by a drive signal, proportionally changing the oscillatorsfrequency, amplitude and the coupling parameters amongthe oscillators. Locomotion initiation, stopping and smooth gaitswitching is achieved by changing the drive signal. We alsodemonstrate a posture controller for hexapod robots using thedynamical systems approach.Results from simulation using a model of the Chiara hexapodrobot demonstrate the capability of the controller both tolocomotion generation and smooth gait transition. The posturalcontroller is also tested in different situations in which thehexapod robot is expected to maintain balance. The presentedresults prove its reliability.
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