Computer aided modeling and analysis of turning motion of hexapod robot on varying terrains Abhijit Mahapatra . Shibendu Shekhar Roy . Dilip Kumar Pratihar Received: 17 February 2015 / Accepted: 20 June 2015 / Published online: 4 July 2015 Ó Springer Science+Business Media Dordrecht 2015 Abstract To successfully design a hexapod robot with maneuverability over varying terrains, the kine- matic and dynamic analyses for its motion are very essential. This paper proposes an integrated approach for carrying out design, analysis and simulation of the motions and mechanisms of hexapod robots generat- ing turning gaits. A new path planning approach is proposed for the turning motion analysis of the robot walking over any kind of terrain varying from flat to rough in three-dimensional Cartesian space with the desired gait pattern. The kinematics model of the hexapod robot having legs of three degrees of freedom each is developed to simulate turning motion, and its performance is tested on a realistic computer aided design model using the available virtual prototyping tools. The model is capable of investigating various kinematic parameters of the hexapod robot like displacement, velocity, acceleration, trace of the position of aggregate center of mass during turning motions. A case study is solved and the theoretically obtained results are verified by simulating the same in a commercially available numerical solver for multi- body dynamic analysis like MSC.ADAMS Ò . The results show a close agreement between the theoretical and simulated results, which proves the efficacy of the proposed algorithm. Keywords Hexapod robot  Kinematics  Varying terrains  Turning motion  Analytical approach Abbreviations ADAMS Automated Dynamic Analysis of Mechanical Systems CAD Computer Aided Design CAE Computer Aided Engineering CATIA V5 Computer Aided Three Dimensional Interactive Application Version 5 COM Center of mass DF Duty factor DH Denavit–Hartenberg DOF Degrees of freedom 3D Three-dimensional VP Virtual Prototyping A. Mahapatra Virtual Prototyping and Immersive Visualization Lab, CSIR-Central Mechanical Engineering Research Institute, Durgapur 713209, India e-mail: abhi.mahapatra@gmail.com A. Mahapatra  S. S. Roy Department of Mechanical Engineering, National Institute of Technology, Durgapur 713209, India e-mail: ssroy99@yahoo.com D. K. Pratihar (&) Department of Mechanical Engineering, Indian Institute of Technology, Kharagpur 721302, India e-mail: dkpra@mech.iitkgp.ernet.in 123 Int J Mech Mater Des (2015) 11:309–336 DOI 10.1007/s10999-015-9315-0