Development of horse-type quadruped robot

Abstract

The purpose of the study is to realize horse-like walking by a quadruped robot. First, to understand the gait of a horse we analyzed the gait of a trotting horse in a sagittal plane. We also studied the structure and function of equine muscles, tendons and skeleton. As a result, we proposed the model of horse-type quadruped robot. Its characteristics are: 1. At the fetlock joint, equine tendons work as springs. We introduced this role of tendons into the proposed model. 2. Each leg of this model has the same number of joints as that of each of the equine legs except digit or pes. Next, we made a simulator of this model and carried out simulation experiments to show the effect of the spring. Then the quadruped robot was designed.