Hi
I was just wondering what tripod means in the context of the hexapod movement?
It’s a robot with three legs.
And in hexapod movement, it means to move three legs at a time. e.g. Middle Right, Back Left and Front Left legs all at once. Doing this will allow the hexapod to walk.
biped = 2
tripod = 3
quadruped = 4
pentapod = 5
hexapod = 6
octopod = 8
decapod = 10
pollipod = 11+
I think seaman you were referring to tripod gait.
if you have a robot with 3 legs on each side, for a total of 6 its how the legs lift and move to create forward motion.
for instance
Front left / Right Middle / Rear left ------move forward then
Front Right / Left Middle / Rear Right then do it all over again
so if you can visualize this, that’s how it all works.
-Aaron
Ever wonder why it’s quadruped and not quadrupod? And there’s a biped also.
Alan KM6VV
I’d be more inclined to wonder why it is hexapod and not hexaped.
From Merriam-Webster Online for quadruped, “Etymology: Latin quadruped-, quadrupes, from quadruped-, quadrupes, adjective, having four feet, from quadri- + ped-, pes foot”
Maybe has something to do with animals having feet (biped, quadruped), and the others are insects, arachnids, crustaceans or something else? They are arthropods, podos from the Greek word for “foot”.
Oh I don’t know. Back to building and programming!
Alan KM6VV
wooo way off subject.
spot on. 
someones been on wikipedia…
i think seawolf understands now it means tripod gait. (Gait = analysis of locomotion).
Three legs up at a time, allowing the body to move on the other three. creating a triangle or (tri - pod) for balance.
This off subject too then?
Alan KM6VV
eh. yeah guilty.
sorry, it appeared to me the OP’s question had been addressed and we were moving onto more philosophical ponderings.
on the “subject” what is a one legged robot called… UNIPED?
i remember seeing a pentapod on you tube somewhere.
Yeah, so did I. It seems I’m always pondering what and why to call some of these legged robots. I’m writing a paper; and I’d really like to get them right!
If the OP doesn’t mind, maybe we could turn this into a philosophical thread (or I guess it could go elsewhere)? Maybe define some more (biological?) aspects of our “legged robots”? You know sagittal planes and all that.
Alan KM6VV
(Not an actual philosopher)
If my animal vs. other stuff theory is correct, it’ll have to be UNIPOD. (Probably even anyway).
Alan KM6VV
would be a very interesting paper to read. i feel nature will give you most of the information you need.
Anatomical Planes… are you writing about this too.
it will be interesting as most (nearly all) land animals are quadrupeds, and saying this 'most walk differently. insects, lizards, crocks etc swing their legs (transverse plane) and cows, horses, dogs, cats etc sweep their legs (sagittal Plane)
Paper is on a robotic project, but I need to make a few comments on gait and such in it.
I found a really good paper “Modeling biological systems:” at:
ece.ut.ac.ir/Classpages/S87/ECE642/
Actually about eight or nine papers there. I can’t remember if I posted the link here before.
Alan KM6VV
It might be to differentiate between the organic and nonorganic constructs. Use “ped” for organic and “pod” for the other. 
That would mean that techically, a biped should really be a bipod. I use “bipod” to differentiate my two legged design from the rest of them because the legs are closer to the design of a hexapod than a regular two legged robot.
8-Dale
Don’t you consider insects to be organic? I’d be more inclined to put the differentiation between animals and non-animals. Basically what I said above.
But this might be off-topic to the thread.
Alan KM6VV