Design and Control of the Rotor-Assisted Planar Folding-Leg Robot KOU

Abstract

This article introduces the design of a planar folding-legged single-legged robot employing rotor-assisted locomotion. Subsequently, this robot is employed to validate and achieve enhanced mobility and stability in legged robotics through rotor-assisted locomotion. The main motivation is to validate and enhance the stability and maneuverability of legged robotics by incorporating rotor-assisted locomotion. To achieve this, we have designed a shock-resistant, high-torque density modular actuator based on a cycloidal drive reducer scheme and an integrated hip joint actuator. These actuators are used in the development of a planar folding single-legged robot, <italic xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">KOU</i> , which is capable of rotor-assisted locomotion. Utilizing a simple and efficient motion control approach with only three-state cycles, we ultimately validate the performance enhancement of legged robots modeled as nonideal spring-loaded inverted pendulums through rotor assistance.