Jumping with Expandable Trunk of a Metamorphic Quadruped Robot—The Origaker II

Abstract

Most of the traditional quadruped robots are assembled with rigid trunks that make no active contributions to their locomotion performances. However, in the natural world, some quadrupeds expand their trunks when jumping. This paper proposes a metamorphic quadruped robot, named the Origaker II, with an expandable trunk that can implement the motion of contracting-stretching. Benefitting from the expandable trunk, this robot achieves a longer jumping distance than that of the traditional quadruped robots. The structure of the robot is introduced. Its jumping motion is designed based on the observation of a frog. The effect of the expandable trunk on this robot will be mathematically analyzed. At last, contrast simulations are conducted to verify the benefits of the expandable trunk to the robot.