Sense organs of insect legs and the selection of sensors for agile walking robots

Legged robots modeled after insects have been proposed for use on rugged, dangerous, or inaccessible terrain. The agility of current hexapod robots, however, is not yet as good as that of their biological counterparts. The capability of insects for agile locomotion is likely due mainly to the rich variety of sensory information that is provided by sense organs in their legs. In this article we review the characteristics and distribution of insect leg sense organs in terms that are relevant to researchers interested in designing agile, insect-like, walking robots. In insect locomotion, three classes of mechanosensory organs seem to play an important role in sensory feedback: detectors of leg movement, detectors of external contact, and detectors of leg stress. We review the properties of these types of sense organs and describe their functional roles in the control of locomotion.