While walking robots theoretically have the advantage of superior off-road capabilities in comparison to tracked or wheeled robots, they also demand tread point planning to live up to their potential. Existing systems either use preven-tive or reactive environment recognition to decide on tread points. An analysis yielded the reactive approach as more promising, but the analyzed reactive systems are prone to dynamic influences. In this article, a combined reactive and preventive approach to tread point planning without this limitation is presented. Applying this approach results in an increased robustness for a walking robot against terrain irregularities, since it uses a switch at each foot point that yields a direct feedback whether each foot has traction or not.    «

While walking robots theoretically have the advantage of superior off-road capabilities in comparison to tracked or wheeled robots, they also demand tread point planning to live up to their potential. Existing systems either use preven-tive or reactive environment recognition to decide on tread points. An analysis yielded the reactive approach as more promising, but the analyzed reactive systems are prone to dynamic influences. In this article, a combined reactive and preventive approach to trea...    »