Accurate perception and representation of rough terrain for a hexapod robot by analysing foot locomotion

•A rough terrain perception and representation method is proposed for a hexapod robot by analysing foot locomotion.•A calculation model is constructed to acquire the unordered foot positions by using the vector method of kinematic analysis.•A local terrain representation method is proposed by establishing a filter mechanism to integrate foot positions information.•A global terrain representation method is presented by using local terrains and the body posture transformation relationship.•The proposed method can effectively improve the terrain measurement accuracy without external observation sensors.