{"status":"ok","message-type":"work","message-version":"1.0.0","message":{"indexed":{"date-parts":[[2026,7,24]],"date-time":"2026-07-24T20:32:59Z","timestamp":1784925179797,"version":"3.55.0"},"reference-count":39,"publisher":"MDPI AG","issue":"2","license":[{"start":{"date-parts":[[2023,3,15]],"date-time":"2023-03-15T00:00:00Z","timestamp":1678838400000},"content-version":"vor","delay-in-days":0,"URL":"https:\/\/creativecommons.org\/licenses\/by\/4.0\/"}],"funder":[{"DOI":"10.13039\/501100004585","name":"project IGA","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","award":["FIT-S-23-8151"],"award-info":[{"award-number":["FIT-S-23-8151"]}],"id":[{"id":"10.13039\/501100004585","id-type":"DOI","asserted-by":"publisher"}]}],"content-domain":{"domain":[],"crossmark-restriction":false},"short-container-title":["Robotics"],"abstract":"<jats:p>Multi-legged robots, such as hexapods, have great potential to navigate challenging terrain. However, their design and control are usually much more complex and energy-demanding compared to wheeled robots. This paper presents a wheeled six-legged robot with five degrees of freedom, that is able to move on a flat surface using wheels and switch to gait in rugged terrain, which reduces energy consumption. The novel joint configuration mimics the structure of insect limbs and allows our robot to overcome difficult terrain. The wheels reduce energy consumption when moving on flat terrain and the trochanter joint reduces energy consumption when moving on slopes, extending the operating time and range of the robot. The results of experiments on sloping terrain are presented. It was confirmed that the use of the trochanter joint can lead to a reduction in energy consumption when moving in sloping terrain.<\/jats:p>","DOI":"10.3390\/robotics12020042","type":"journal-article","created":{"date-parts":[[2023,3,15]],"date-time":"2023-03-15T06:36:36Z","timestamp":1678862196000},"page":"42","update-policy":"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.3390\/mdpi_crossmark_policy","source":"Crossref","is-referenced-by-count":9,"title":["Energy Efficiency of a Wheeled Bio-Inspired Hexapod Walking Robot in Sloping Terrain"],"prefix":"10.3390","volume":"12","author":[{"given":"Marek","family":"\u017d\u00e1k","sequence":"first","affiliation":[{"name":"Department of Intelligent Systems, Faculty of Information Technology, Brno University of Technology, Bo\u017eet\u011bchova 2, 612 66 Brno, Czech Republic"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0001-8443-433X","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Jaroslav","family":"Rozman","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Department of Intelligent Systems, Faculty of Information Technology, Brno University of Technology, Bo\u017eet\u011bchova 2, 612 66 Brno, Czech Republic"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0002-6965-4104","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Franti\u0161ek V.","family":"Zbo\u0159il","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Department of Intelligent Systems, Faculty of Information Technology, Brno University of Technology, Bo\u017eet\u011bchova 2, 612 66 Brno, Czech Republic"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]}],"member":"1968","published-online":{"date-parts":[[2023,3,15]]},"reference":[{"key":"ref_1","unstructured":"Kajita, S., and Espiau, B. (2008). Springer Handbook of Robotics, Springer."},{"key":"ref_2","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","unstructured":"Elfes, A., Steindl, R., Talbot, F., Kendoul, F., Sikka, P., Lowe, T., Kottege, N., Bjelonic, M., Dungavell, R., and Bandyopadhyay, T. (June, January 29). The multilegged autonomous explorer (MAX). Proceedings of the 2017 IEEE International Conference on Robotics and Automation (ICRA), Singapore.","DOI":"10.1109\/ICRA.2017.7989126"},{"key":"ref_3","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","unstructured":"Goldschmidt, D., Hesse, F., W\u00f6rg\u00f6tter, F., and Manoonpong, P. (2012, January 7\u201312). Biologically Inspired Reactive Climbing Behavior of Hexapod Robots. Proceedings of the 2012 IEEE\/RSJ International Conference on Intelligent Robots and Systems, Vilamoura-Algarve, Portugal.","DOI":"10.1109\/IROS.2012.6386135"},{"key":"ref_4","unstructured":"Belter, D., and Walas, K. (2014). Recent Advances in Automation, Robotics and Measuring Techniques, Proceedings of the International Conference AUTOMATION 2014, Warsaw, Poland, 26\u201328 March 2014, Springer."},{"key":"ref_5","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","unstructured":"Gorner, M., Wimbock, T., Baumann, A., Fuchs, M., Bahls, T., Grebenstein, M., Borst, C., Butterfass, J., and Hirzinger, G. (2008, January 22\u201326). The DLR-Crawler: A testbed for actively compliant hexapod walking based on the fingers of DLR-Hand II. Proceedings of the 2008 IEEE\/RSJ International Conference on Intelligent Robots and Systems, Nice, France.","DOI":"10.1109\/IROS.2008.4650655"},{"key":"ref_6","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","unstructured":"R\u00fcckert, U., Joaquin, S., and Felix, W. (2012). Advances in Autonomous Mini Robots, Proceedings of the 6th International Symposium on Autonomous Minirobots for Research and Edutainment (AMiRE), Bielefeld, Germany, 23\u201325 May 2011, Springer.","DOI":"10.1007\/978-3-642-27482-4"},{"key":"ref_7","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"203","DOI":"10.20965\/jrm.2006.p0203","article-title":"Integrated limb mechanism robot ASTERISK","volume":"18","author":"Takubo","year":"2006","journal-title":"J. Robot. Mechatron."},{"key":"ref_8","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","unstructured":"Roennau, A., Heppner, G., Nowicki, M., and Dillmann, R. (2014, January 8\u201311). LAURON V: A versatile six-legged walking robot with advanced maneuverability. Proceedings of the 2014 IEEE\/ASME International Conference on Advanced Intelligent Mechatronics, Besacon, France.","DOI":"10.1109\/AIM.2014.6878051"},{"key":"ref_9","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","unstructured":"Bjelonic, M., Kottege, N., and Beckerle, P. (2016, January 9\u201314). Proprioceptive control of an over-actuated hexapod robot in unstructured terrain. Proceedings of the 2016 IEEE\/RSJ International Conference on Intelligent Robots and Systems (IROS), Daejeon, Republic of Korea.","DOI":"10.1109\/IROS.2016.7759321"},{"key":"ref_10","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"1","DOI":"10.1016\/S1672-6529(14)60015-9","article-title":"Abigaille-III: A versatile, bioinspired hexapod for scaling smooth vertical surfaces","volume":"11","author":"Henrey","year":"2014","journal-title":"J. Bionic Eng."},{"key":"ref_11","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"207","DOI":"10.1023\/A:1012426720699","article-title":"Rhex: A biologically inspired hexapod runner","volume":"11","author":"Altendorfer","year":"2001","journal-title":"Auton. Robot."},{"key":"ref_12","unstructured":"Galloway, K.C., Haynes, G.C., Ilhan, B.D., Johnson, A.M., Knopf, R., Lynch, G.A., Plotnick, B.N., White, M., and Koditschek, D.E. (2010). X-RHex: A Highly Mobile Hexapedal Robot for Sensorimotor Tasks, University of Pennsylvania."},{"key":"ref_13","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"59","DOI":"10.1016\/0921-8890(96)00003-6","article-title":"Biologically based distributed control and local reflexes improve rough terrain locomotion in a hexapod robot","volume":"18","author":"Espenschied","year":"1996","journal-title":"Robot. Auton. Syst."},{"key":"ref_14","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"1219","DOI":"10.1163\/016918610X501499","article-title":"Dynamic Simulation-Based Action Planner for a Reconfigurable Hybrid Leg-Wheel Planetary Exploration Rover","volume":"24","author":"Rohmer","year":"2010","journal-title":"Adv. Robot."},{"key":"ref_15","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"403","DOI":"10.20965\/jrm.2008.p0403","article-title":"Hybrid Locomotion of Leg-Wheel ASTERISK H","volume":"20","author":"Yoshioka","year":"2008","journal-title":"J. Robot. Mechatron."},{"key":"ref_16","unstructured":"Grand, C., BenAmar, F., Plumet, F., and Bidaud, P. (May, January 26). Decoupled control of posture and trajectory of the hybrid wheel-legged robot hylos. Proceedings of the IEEE International Conference on Robotics and Automation, ICRA \u201904, New Orleans, LA, USA."},{"key":"ref_17","first-page":"1657","article-title":"Evaluation of Locomotion Performances for a Mecanum-Wheeled Hybrid Hexapod Robot","volume":"26","author":"Carbone","year":"2020","journal-title":"IEEE\/ASME Trans. Mechatron."},{"key":"ref_18","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"80","DOI":"10.1515\/comp-2020-0189","article-title":"Design and Control of 7-DOF Omni-directional Hexapod Robot","volume":"11","author":"Rozman","year":"2021","journal-title":"Open Comput. Sci."},{"key":"ref_19","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"36","DOI":"10.1016\/j.cois.2016.11.002","article-title":"Developmental mechanism of the tarsus in insect legs","volume":"19","author":"Kojima","year":"2017","journal-title":"Curr. Opin. Insect Sci."},{"key":"ref_20","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"16","DOI":"10.1016\/j.asd.2008.06.002","article-title":"Gimbals in the insect leg","volume":"38","author":"Frantsevich","year":"2009","journal-title":"Arthropod Struct. Dev."},{"key":"ref_21","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"235","DOI":"10.1007\/BF00606541","article-title":"The function of the legs in the free walking stick insect, Carausius morosus","volume":"112","author":"Cruse","year":"1976","journal-title":"J. Comp. Physiol."},{"key":"ref_22","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","unstructured":"Bender, J.A., Simpson, E.M., and Ritzmann, R.E. (2010). Computer-assisted 3D kinematic analysis of all leg joints in walking insects. PLoS ONE, 5.","DOI":"10.1371\/journal.pone.0013617"},{"key":"ref_23","unstructured":"Beeson, N.W. (2023, January 29). File:InsectLeg.png. Available online: https:\/\/commons.wikimedia.org\/wiki\/File:InsectLeg.png."},{"key":"ref_24","first-page":"111","article-title":"The Structure of Insect Muscles","volume":"2","author":"Smith","year":"2012","journal-title":"Insect Ultrastruct."},{"key":"ref_25","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"181","DOI":"10.3390\/robotics3020181","article-title":"Design issues for hexapod walking robots","volume":"3","author":"Tedeschi","year":"2014","journal-title":"Robotics"},{"key":"ref_26","unstructured":"ROBOTIS (2023, January 29). Dynamixel MX Series. Available online: https:\/\/emanual.robotis.com\/docs\/en\/dxl\/mx\/."},{"key":"ref_27","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","unstructured":"Duan, X., Chen, W., Yu, S., and Liu, J. (2009, January 9\u201311). Tripod gaits planning and kinematics analysis of a hexapod robot. Proceedings of the 2009 IEEE International Conference on Control and Automation, Christchurch, New Zealand.","DOI":"10.1109\/ICCA.2009.5410582"},{"key":"ref_28","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"6918","DOI":"10.3182\/20110828-6-IT-1002.02234","article-title":"Integrated Motion Planning for a Hexapod Robot Walking on Rough Terrain","volume":"44","author":"Belter","year":"2011","journal-title":"IFAC Proc. Vol."},{"key":"ref_29","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"1","DOI":"10.1016\/0025-5564(93)90045-C","article-title":"A study of the stability of generalized wave gaits","volume":"115","author":"Zhang","year":"1993","journal-title":"Math. Biosci."},{"key":"ref_30","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"888","DOI":"10.1109\/21.105087","article-title":"The optimally stable ranges of 2n-legged wave gaits","volume":"20","author":"Song","year":"1990","journal-title":"IEEE Trans. Syst. Man Cybern."},{"key":"ref_31","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","unstructured":"Zheng, Y.F. (1993). Recent Trends in Mobile Robots, World Scientific.","DOI":"10.1142\/2126"},{"key":"ref_32","unstructured":"M\u0103noiu-Olaru, S., Nitulescu, M., and Stoian, V. (2011, January 14\u201316). Hexapod robot. Mathematical support for modeling and control. Proceedings of the 15th International Conference on System Theory, Control and Computing, Sinaia, Romania."},{"key":"ref_33","unstructured":"ROBOTIS (2023, January 29). U2D2. Available online: https:\/\/emanual.robotis.com\/docs\/en\/parts\/interface\/u2d2\/."},{"key":"ref_34","unstructured":"ROBOTIS (2023, January 29). MX-106T\/R(2.0). Available online: https:\/\/emanual.robotis.com\/docs\/en\/dxl\/mx\/mx-106-2\/."},{"key":"ref_35","unstructured":"ROBOTIS (2023, January 29). DYNAMIXEL Protocol 2.0. Available online: https:\/\/emanual.robotis.com\/docs\/en\/dxl\/protocol2\/."},{"key":"ref_36","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","unstructured":"Bestmann, M., G\u00fcldenstein, J., and Zhang, J. (2019, January 2\u20138). High-Frequency Multi Bus Servo and Sensor Communication Using the Dynamixel Protocol. Proceedings of the RoboCup 2019: Robot World Cup XXIII, Sydney, NSW, Australia.","DOI":"10.1007\/978-3-030-35699-6_2"},{"key":"ref_37","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"636","DOI":"10.1016\/j.jtbi.2005.06.027","article-title":"An analytical estimation of the energy cost for legged locomotion","volume":"238","author":"Nishii","year":"2006","journal-title":"J. Theor. Biol."},{"key":"ref_38","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","unstructured":"Kottege, N., Parkinson, C., Moghadam, P., Elfes, A., and Singh, S.P. (2015, January 26\u201330). Energetics-informed hexapod gait transitions across terrains. Proceedings of the 2015 IEEE International Conference on Robotics and Automation (ICRA), Seattle, WA, USA.","DOI":"10.1109\/ICRA.2015.7139915"},{"key":"ref_39","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","unstructured":"Roennau, A., Heppner, G., Nowicki, M., Z\u00f6llner, J.M., and Dillmann, R. (2014, January 14\u201318). Reactive posture behaviors for stable legged locomotion over steep inclines and large obstacles. Proceedings of the 2014 IEEE\/RSJ International Conference on Intelligent Robots and Systems, Chicago, IL, USA.","DOI":"10.1109\/IROS.2014.6943257"}],"container-title":["Robotics"],"original-title":[],"language":"en","link":[{"URL":"https:\/\/www.mdpi.com\/2218-6581\/12\/2\/42\/pdf","content-type":"unspecified","content-version":"vor","intended-application":"similarity-checking"}],"deposited":{"date-parts":[[2025,10,10]],"date-time":"2025-10-10T18:55:46Z","timestamp":1760122546000},"score":1,"resource":{"primary":{"URL":"https:\/\/www.mdpi.com\/2218-6581\/12\/2\/42"}},"subtitle":[],"short-title":[],"issued":{"date-parts":[[2023,3,15]]},"references-count":39,"journal-issue":{"issue":"2","published-online":{"date-parts":[[2023,4]]}},"alternative-id":["robotics12020042"],"URL":"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.3390\/robotics12020042","relation":{},"ISSN":["2218-6581"],"issn-type":[{"value":"2218-6581","type":"electronic"}],"subject":[],"published":{"date-parts":[[2023,3,15]]}}}