What is Preliminary Layout Design

This chapter deals with hexapod walking robot design and operation. The first section gives a wide overview of the state-of-the-art on hexapod walking robots by referring both to early design solutions and to most recent achievements. Section two identifies the main design challenges that influence the technical feasibility and performance of these systems. In section three, a design procedure is proposed. In particular, the proposed design procedure takes into account mechanical structure, leg configuration, actuating and drive mechanisms, payload, motion conditions, walking gait, and control system. A case of study is carefully described as referring to previous experiences at LARM.