Quadruped robots consume a lot of energy, which is one of the factors restricting their application. Energy efficiency is one of the key evaluating indicators for walking robots. The relationship between energy and elastic elements of walking robots have been studied, but different walking gait patterns and contact status have important influences on locomotion energy efficiency, and the energy efficiency considering the foot-end trajectory has not been reported. Therefore, the energy consumption and energy efficiency of quadruped robot with trot gait and combined cycloid foot trajectory are studied. The forward and inverse kinematics of quadruped robot is derived. The combined cycloid function is proposed to generate horizontal and vertical foot trajectory respectively, which can ensure the acceleration curve of the foot-end smoother and more successive, and reduce the contact force between feet and environment. Because of the variable topology mechanism characteristic of quadruped robot, the leg state is divided into three different phases which are swing phase, transition phase and stance phase during one trot gait cycle. The non-continuous variable constraint between feet and environment of quadruped robot is studied. The dynamic model of quadruped robot is derived considering the variable topology mechanism characteristic, the periodic contact and elastic elements of the robot. The total energy consumption of walking robot during one gait cycle is analyzed based on the dynamic model. The specific resistance is used to evaluate energy efficiency of quadruped robot. The calculation results show the relationships between specific resistance and gait parameters, which can be used to determine the reasonable gait parameters.
LEI JingtaoWANG FengYU HuangyingWANG TianmiaoYUAN Peijiang
Spinning gait is valuable for quadruped robot,which can be used to avoid obstacles quickly for robot walking in unstructured environment. A kind of bionic flexible body is presented for quadruped robot to perform the spinning gait. The spinning gait can be achieved by coordinated movement of body laterally bending and legs swing,which can improve the mobility of robot walking in the unstructured environments. The coordinated movement relationship between the body and the leg mechanism is presented. The stability of quadruped robot with spinning gait is analyzed based on the center of gravity( COG) projection method. The effect of different body bending angle on the stability of quadruped robot with spinning gait is mainly studied. For the quadruped robot walking with spinning gait,during one spinning gait cycle,the supporting polygon and the trajectory of COG projection point under different body bending angle are calculated. Finally,the stability margin of quadruped robot with spinning gait under different body bending angle is determined,which can be used to evaluate reasonableness of spinning gait parameters.
The body of quadruped robot is generally developed with the rigid structure. The mobility of quadruped robot depcnds on the mechanical properties of the body mechanism, It is difficult for quadruped robot with rigid structure to achieve better mobility walking or running in the unstructured environment. A kind of bionic flexible body mechanism for quadruped robot is proposed, which is composed of one bionic spine and four pneumatic artificial muscles（PAMs）. This kind of body imitates the four-legged creatures＇ kinematical structure and physical properties, which has the characteristic of changeable stiff＇hess, lightweight, flexible and better bionics. The kinematics of body bending is derived, and the coordinated movement between the flexible body and legs is analyzed. The relationship between the body bending angle and the PAM length is obtained. The dynamics of the body bending is derived by the floating coordinate method and Lagrangian method, and the driving tbrce of PAM is determined. The experiment of body bending is conductcd, and the dynamic bending characteristic of bionic flexible body is evaluated. Experimental results show that the bending angle of the bionic flexible body can reach 18. An innovation body mechanism for quadruped robot is proposed, which has the characteristic of flexibility and achieve bending by changing gas pressure of PAMs. The coordinated movement of the body and legs can achieve spinning gait in order to improve the mobility of quadruped robot.
Bionic robots are generally driven by motors.As robots driven by pneumatic artificial muscles(PAMs)have the advantages of light weight,good bionics and flexibility,more and more researchers have adopted PAMs to drive bionic robots.A kind of bionic leg driven by PAMs for hopping is proposed in this work.A 3-DOF bionic leg driven by 4 PAMs is designed by analyzing the biological structure and movement principles of frog legs,and 3 kinds of leg configuration with different PAMs arrangement is proposed.One biarticular muscle is used to increase the joint rotating range.The bracket pulley and PAMs for driving joint can effectively increase its rotating range.The rotating range of hip and knee joint driven by a biarticular muscle is simulated.The simulation results show that the biarticular muscle can transfer the movement of the hip joint to the knee joint and increase the rotating range of the knee joint.The greater the contraction of PAM,the greater the rotating range of joint.The bionic leg can perform planned step distance and step height of hopping.
Pneumatic artificial muscles(PAMs) have properties similar to biological muscles,which are widely used in robotics as actuators.It is difficult to achieve high-precision position control for robotics system driven by PAMs.A 3-DOF musculoskeletal bionic leg mechanism is presented,which is driven by PAMs for quadruped robots.PAM is used to simulate the compliance of biological muscle.The kinematics of the leg swing is derived,and the foot desired trajectory is planned as the sinusoidal functions.The swing experiments of the musculoskeletal leg mechanism are conducted to analyse the extension and flexion of joints.A proportional integral derivative(PID) algorithm is presented for controlling the flexion/extension of the joint.The trajectory tracking results of joints and the PAM gas pressure are obtained.Experimental results show that the developed leg mechanism exhibits good biological properties.
As the pneumatic artificial muscle （PAM） has flexibility properties similar to biological muscle which is widely used in robotics as one kind of actuators, the bionic mechanism driven by PAMs be- comes a hot spot in robotics. In this paper, a kind of musculoskeletal leg mechanism driven by PAMs is presented, which has three joints driven by four PAMs. The jumping movement is divided into three phases. The forward and inverse kinematics of the leg mechanism in different jumping phases is derived. Considering the ground reaction force between feet and environment, the dynamic in different jumping phases is analyzed by Lagrange method, then the relationship between PAM driving force and the joints angular displacement, angular velocity, angular acceleration during one jumping cycle is obtained, which will lay a foundatiori for the jumping experiment of the musculo- skeletal lez mechanism.
