Realization of a passive compliant robot dog

Abstract

Dogs are capable of showing rich motor skills in complex environments. No such capabilities have yet been seen in quadruped robots. In this work we present the design and realization of a biologically inspired quadruped robot based on a real dogs' anatomy. This dog, referred to as the Reservoir Dog, is capable of autonomously showing multiple gaits such as walk, which require active retraction of the legs, and gallop, during which all four legs are lifted from the ground. Each leg consists of three segments of which two joints can be actively controlled and one joint is passively compliant. To keep the leg's weight as low as possible all actuation is mounted on the body.