Systematic and complete enumeration of statically stable multipod gaits

Insect-like robots have many advantages concerning mobility and stability. The specific sequence of legs going through different phases, the gait, is important when planning and executing a complex motion. The notion of gaits was originally introduced by biologists but gaits also influenced robot development. Typical multipod robots are able to execute much more gaits than occur in wildlife. In this paper we present a formalism to express certain rules for reasonable gaits. We show an algorithm that enumerates all statically stable gaits according to our formalism. We then provide a gait classification by the example of six-legged robots. Finally, we introduce properties to evaluate gaits.