Adaptive Running of a Quadruped Robot Using Forced Vibration and Synchronization

Abstract

In this paper we regard legged locomotion (e.g., running) as adaptive vibration, which is capable of adapting to changes in internal parameters and in the external environment. We propose control concepts for such adaptive running in general, and present a theoretical study of the bounding locomotion of a quadruped robot according to the proposed control concepts. In our control method, a forced vibratory system with a synchronization function is constructed by using a rhythm generator and a torque generator. The states of both generators are modified by delayed feedback control (DFC) using a stance phase period measured by contact sensors. Such sensory feedback to both generators makes the system adaptive to changes in the physical parameters and also adaptive to changes in terrain. The effectiveness of the proposed method was confirmed by simulations using a quadruped robot with an active hip joint and a passive knee joint in each leg. MPEG footage of these simulations can be seen at: http://www.kimura.is.uec.ac.jp/running.

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“…By using the designed quadruped robot and the proposed control strategy as shown in sections 3 and 4, some experiments are carried out where the robot runs from standing to steady bounding on flat terrain with good energy efficiency and successfully runs up a small step. These experimental results described in section 5 agree with the corresponding simulation results reported in the previous papers of this study [13,14]. In section 6, two significant topics (i.e.…”

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“…where the 3 value in the supporting phase is given by (11). In order to verify the strokes of the three joints presented correctly, some key points can be used as shown in Figure 13.…”

“…The first comprehensive quadruped robot, KUMO-I, was developed in 1976 by Japan's Tokyo Institute of Technology, which subsequently also produced TITAN series quadruped robots based on this study [3][4][5][6]. Currently quadruped robots are widely studied in many universities and laboratories around the world [7][8][9][10][11][12][13]. The most advanced quadruped robot so far is BigDog, jointly developed by Boston Dynamics and M.I.T.…”