Analysis of Relationship between limb length and joint load in quadruped walking on the slope

Abstract

An animal has a characteristic ratio of forefoot and rear legs so that its morphology can adapt to the living environment. Likewise, the structure of robot should be better fitted the locomotion in the working environment. This paper derives an optimal structure of the quadruped robot, which minimizes the sum of joint torques of the robot. Minimization of the joint torque allows to reduce the joint acceleration in walking motion, and hence to reduce energy consumption. Numerical simulation analyzed joint torques in each limb length and slope angle under walking on a slope. The optimal rate of rear leg length (RRL) is derived by the simulation as the physical structure. Our analysis suggests that the joint torque will increase as the slope angle becomes steeper in the case that the rear legs are shorter than forelegs. On the other hand, the joint torque will decrease as the slope angle is declined in the case that the forelegs are shorter than the rear legs. Experimental results validated the simulation analysis.