TurBot: A Turtle-Inspired Quadruped Robot Using Topology Optimized Soft-Rigid Hybrid Legs

Abstract

Quadruped robots are used for a wide variety of transportation and exploration tasks due to their high dexterity. Currently, many studies utilize soft robotic legs to replace rigid-link-based legs, with the aim to improve quadruped robots' adaptability to complex environments. However, the conventional soft legs still face the challenge of limited load-bearing capacity. To cope with this issue, we propose in this work a type of soft-rigid hybrid leg, which is synthesized by using a multistage topology optimization method. A simplified model is also created to describe the kinematics of the synthesized soft leg. Using the realized legs, we have developed a turtle-inspired quadruped robot called TurBot. By mimicking the walking pattern of a turtle, two motion gaits (straight-line walking and turning) are designed to realize the robotic locomotion. Experiments are also conducted to evaluate the walking performance of TurBot. Results show that the realized robot can achieve stable straight-line walking and turning motions. In addition, TurBot can carry up to 500 g extra weight while walking, which is 126% of its own body weight. Moreover, different locomotion tests have also successfully verified TurBot's ability to adapt to complex environments.