Finite state automaton based control system for walking machines

Walking machines have proved to be an important invention as they do not require any prepared surface, making them ideal for applications involving unexplored environments. They are equipped with a large number of actuators and sensors to achieve a robust locomotion; thus, a systematic approach to designing their control system is required. This article presents a functional control structure based on the logic-labelled finite state automaton approach developed for walking machines. A general control structure is presented and a hexapod robot is used to verify the practicability of the design.