Conclusion
We have to emphasize that we were very careful in the
construction of the robots. We were previously warned of the problems
that could occur if inappropriate handling of the parts was conducted.
Taking care of these warnings, some details went wrong anyway.
Considering these circumstances we conclude that the TRIPOD resulted to
be the best assembly from all three configurations. The fact that it
moved three legs per pulse, half of the total amount of legs, gave it a
good stability in each step. Even though the TWOPOD was the fastest one,
it demonstrated to be less stable on walking direction. The TWOPOD
demonstrated difficulties in the manual control procedures because of
the three different pulses needed to walk and its corresponding
connections. Another advantage of the TRIPOD over the TWOPOD was that
the current was distributed in 3 legs instead of two, reducing the risk
of burning the Nitinol wires. The TRIPOD also proved to be better than
the CATERPILLAR in terms of speed. Even though the CATERPILLAR was the
strongest on one of the steps, it was notably slow. The TRIPOD was less
strong but it demonstrated greater capacity to walk faster.
