This paper describes a system that provides a full body, digitally programmed, kinesthetic display for virtual reality applications. This design begins by providing a full six axis motion platform for each foot of the operator. From this base design, kneeling boards are added to support rolling, kneeling and prone postures; and a vertical feature presentation mechanism is appended which allows the operator to interact with realistic walls, windows, doors and other vertical obstacles features in his movement space. The design of this complex device was driven by a variety of requirements including the need for system modularity, enhanced safety and the need to emulate all significant physical activities.

Autonomous and teleoperated mobile robots require an accurate knowledge of their spatial location in order to accomplish many tasks. Many mobile robots make use of dead reckoning navigation because of its simplicity, low cost and robustness. Although dead reckoning navigation has been used for centuries for ships and wheeled vehicles, the application to a walking machine is novel. Since walking machines differ greatly from ships and wheeled vehicles, a new approach to dead reckoning was developed to solve this problem. This paper discusses the problem, a solution, preliminary test results and future goals for dead reckoning navigation. Experiments were done with the CMU Ambler, an autonomous, six-legged walking robot, but the results are general and apply to any statically stable walking robot. The current results show a systematic bias of two percent of body advance in the direction of travel. Although the cause of this bias is unknown, it is corrected in the position estimation routines.