LAURON is a six-legged walking robot, which is being developed at the Forschungszentrum Informatik Karlsruhe (FZI) in Germany.[1][2] The mechanics and the movements of the robot are biologically-inspired, mimicking the stick insect Carausius Morosus. The development of the LAURON walking robot started with basic research in field of six-legged locomotion in the early 1990s and led to the first robot, called LAURON. In the year 1994, this robot was presented to public at the CeBIT in Hanover. This first LAURON generation was, in contrast to the current generation, controlled by an artificial neural network, hence the robot's German name: LAUfROboter Neuronal gesteuert (English: Walking Robot, Neural Controlled). The current generation LARUON IV was finished in 2004.
Six-legged walking robot LAURON (2009)] |
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This biologically-inspired walking robot was developed to study and realize statically stable walking in rough terrain. Because of the flexible behavior- based control system, LAURON is capable of adapting to unknown situations very well. Through the robust mechanical design, different walking patterns and high number of degrees of freedom , LAURON can maintain a stable locomotion even under extreme circumstances.
A panoramic camera was installed on the back of LAURON for teleoperation tasks. This camera gives the operator a good overview of the robot and its local environment at all times. By the use of augmented reality glasses the operator can see additional status information overlaid onto the camera images and displayed in the glasses.
LAURON is able to gather information about its environment and plan a path towards a given goal autonomously. While walking LAURON can detect obstacles and then either walk over them or around them, if the obstacles are too high
The walking robot is intended to be used in inspection and maintenance tasks in rough and for humans hazardous areas like landmine detection, exploration of volcanoes or search and rescue missions after natural disasters.
The work on the LAURON project started in the early 90s with some basic research and modeling of wooden leg prototypes. In 1992 the first wooden prototype of a complete six-legged walking robot, called INSECT, was built at the Forschungszentrum Information (FZI) at the University Karlsruhe (Germany). This prototype had no actuators, but was able to measure its joint angles of the legs with potentiometers.
LAURON I was finished in late 1993 and then presented to public at the CeBit 1994. It was constructed of aluminum and fiber-reinforced plastics with an overall weight of 11 kg. The robot was controlled by artificial neural networks. The construction and design was strongly inspired by the stick insect. For example,the ratios of the leg segments to each other were similar to ratios found in the stick insect Carausius Morosus.
At the end of 1994 the second generation of LAURON was developed. The main features were a changed mechanical design and some additional sensors like force sensors in the feet and an inclinometer. Because the new legs were now build of aluminum the overall weight of LAURON II increased to 16 kg. LAURON II was used as a test platform for validating various control strategies and for machine learning.
In 1999 the third LAURON generation was built. With an overall weight of 18 kg the robot was now able to carry a payload of up to 10 kg. The artificial neural networks of the previous generations were replaced by a modular reactive control system. Now,the research focus shifted to topics like robot localization, navigation and environment modeling.
The fourth generation of LARUON was finished in 2004 [3]. The mechanical robustness was improved, for example the round cord belt connecting the joints with the motors were replaced by gear belts. Beside, a new head with 2 degrees of freedom was added. The central body was now made of light-weight carbon fiber. LAURON IV weights 27 kg including its accumulators and can reach a maximum walking speed of up to 0.22 m/s. Furthermore, the used NiMH accumulators can supply LAURON with energy for up to 60 minutes. The current version of the fourth LAURON generation is LAURON IVc. LAURON IVc was completed in late 2005 and has minor mechanical improvements in the legs and some small hardware changes compared to the two previous versions in this generation.
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