A new versatile hydraulically powered quadruped robot (HyQ) has been developed to serve as a platform to study not only highly dynamic motions, such as running and jumping, but also careful navigation over very rough terrain. HyQ stands 1 m tall, weighs roughly 90 kg, and features 12 torque-controlled joints powered by a combination of hydraulic and electric actuators. The hydraulic actuation permits the robot to perform powerful and dynamic motions that are hard to achieve with more traditional electrically actuated robots. This paper describes design and specifications of the robot and presents details on the hardware of the quadruped platform, such as the mechanical design of the four articulated legs and of the torso frame, and the configuration of the hydraulic power system. Results from the first walking experiments are presented, along with test studies using a previously built prototype leg.

The behaviors of the animals or embodied agents are characterized by the dynamic coupling between the brain, the body, and the environment. This implies that control, which is conventionally thought to be handled by the brain or a controller, can partially be outsourced to the physical body and the interaction with the environment. This idea has been demonstrated in a number of recently constructed robots, in particular from the field of “soft robotics”. Soft robots are made of a soft material introducing high-dimensionality, non-linearity, and elasticity, which often makes the robots difficult to control. Biological systems such as the octopus are mastering their complex bodies in highly sophisticated manners by capitalizing on their body dynamics. We will demonstrate that the structure of the octopus arm cannot only be exploited for generating behavior but also, in a sense, as a computational resource. By using a soft robotic arm inspired by the octopus we show in a number of experiments how control is partially incorporated into the physical arm's dynamics and how the arm's dynamics can be exploited to approximate non-linear dynamical systems and embed non-linear limit cycles. Future application scenarios as well as the implications of the results for the octopus biology are also discussed.

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Variable length multisection continuum arms are a class of continuum robotic manipulators that generate motion by structural mechanical deformation. Unlike most continuum robots, the sections of these arms do not have (central) supporting flexible backbone, and are actuated by multiple variable length actuators. Because of the constraining nature of actuators, the continuum sections can bend and/or elongate (compress) depending on the elongation/contraction characteristics of the actuators being used. Continuum arms have a number of distinctive differences with respect to traditional rigid arms namely: smooth bending, high inherent compliance, and adaptive whole arm grasping. However, due to numerical instability and the complexity of curve parametric models, there are no spatial dynamic models for multisection continuum arms. This paper introduces novel spatial dynamics and applies these to variable length multisection continuum arms with any number of sections. An efficient recursive computational scheme for deriving the equations of motion is presented. This is applied in a general form based on structurally accurate and numerically well posed modal kinematics that assumes circular arc deformation of continuum sections without torsion. It is shown that the proposed modal dynamics are highly scalable, producing efficient and accurate numerical results. The spatial dynamic simulation results are experimentally validated using a pneumatic muscle actuated multisection prototype continuum arm. For the first time this enables investigation of spatial dynamic effects in this class of continuum arms.

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Biological tentacles, such as octopus arms, have entirely flexible structures and virtually infinite degrees of freedom (DOF) that allow for elongation, shortening and bending at any point along the arm length. The amazing dexterity of biological tentacles has driven the growing implementation of continuum manipulators in robotic systems. This paper presents a pneumatic manipulator inspired by biological continuum structures in some of their key features and functions, such as continuum morphology, intrinsic compliance and stereotyped motions with hyper redundant DOF. The kinematics and dynamics of the manipulator are formulated and identified, and a hierarchical controller taking inspiration from the structure of an octopus nervous system is used to relate desired stereotyped motions to individual actuator inputs. Simulations and experiments are carried out to validate the model and prototype where good agreement was found between the two.

This paper presents a novel spatial kinematic model for multisection continuum arms based on mode shape functions (MSF). Modal methods have been used in many disciplines from finite element methods to structural analysis to approximate complex and nonlinear parametric variations with simple mathematical functions. Given certain constraints and required accuracy, this helps to simplify complex phenomena with numerically efficient implementations leading to fast computations. A successful application of the modal approximation techniques to develop a new modal kinematic model for general variable length multisection continuum arms is discussed. The proposed method solves the limitations associated with previous models and introduces a new approach for readily deriving exact, singularity-free and unique MSF's that simplifies the approach and avoids mode switching. The model is able to simulate spatial bending as well as straight arm motions (i.e., pure elongation/contraction), and introduces inverse position and orientation kinematics for multisection continuum arms. A kinematic decoupling feature, splitting position and orientation inverse kinematics is introduced. This type of decoupling has not been presented for these types of robotic arms before. The model also carefully accounts for physical constraints in the joint space to provide enhanced insight into practical mechanics and impose actuator mechanical limitations onto the kinematics thus generating fully realizable results. The proposed method is easily applicable to a broad spectrum of continuum arm designs.

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