Running and turning control of a quadruped robot with compliant legs in bounding gait

Abstract

In this paper, we introduce a quadruped robot designed for bounding gait with only one actuator per compliant leg. Under the analysis of the dynamics model of the robot, a new simple linear running controller using the energy control idea, which requires minimal task level feedback and only controls both the leg torque and ending impact angle, is proposed. It successfully executes fast running from rest till a constant speed and hi-speed turning, both in the prototype simulation and robot experiment. These results contribute to that complex dynamically dexterous tasks may be controlled via simple energy control method and delayed task feedback, which is closer to the animal's actual locomotion conditions. In the future, we plan to modify this method for reducing the energy expending and make the robot running fast.