Six-Legged Robots Move Faster with Bipod Gate

Six-legged insects run fastest using a three-legged (tripod) gait where they have three legs on the ground at all times (two on one side of their body and one on the other). The tripod gait has long inspired engineers who design six-legged robots, but researchers at Ecole Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne (EPFL) and the University of Lausanne (UNIL) revealed that there is a faster way for robots to move on flat ground, provided they don't have the adhesive pads used by insects to climb walls and ceilings. Their work suggest designers of insect-inspired robots should give up the tripod-gait paradigm and consider other possibilities, including a new locomotor strategy denoted as the “bipod” gait.