Adaptive oscillator controller for quadrupled hopping robots

Abstract

As the robots are used in some of the extreme environments such as battle fields, disaster sites or extra planetary exploration, it is necessary to provide robust locomotive strategies that are optimal to each terrain. The hopping gait has been well studied in robotics and proven to be a potential method for locomotion in some of these areas. There have been some difficulties in developing terrain following controllers that maintain robust, steady state hopping gait which is disturbance resistant. This paper discusses controller strategies that have shown the ability to produce the robust hopping gait. An adaptive oscillator controller presented is this paper works remarkably well, both in simulation and experiments. In this paper, novel control methods based on the phase angle are used to control oscillating robotic systems. The phase oscillator uses the sine and cosine of the phase angle to change key properties of a mass-spring-damper system, including amplitude, frequency, and equilibrium. A hopping robot is used to show the applications of this phase oscillator. This paper presents the theoretical framework, simulations and experimental results.