Development of Quadruped Robot with Pneumatic Actuator

Abstract

In this study, we develop a quadruped walking robot, assuming, such as, a human cooperative tasks in a construction building or a rescue activity in a disaster environment. Pneumatic cylinders are employed as driving actuators since it has explosion proof and inherent compliance. Owing to the compliance feature external force is easily estimated based on a inner pressure of cylinder. We compose a compliance control system on each leg based on the estimated floor reaction force with a disturbance observer. After mentioning a overview of the developed quadruped walking robot, we describe a kinematics, a statics and a control system of each leg. We propose a motion control strategy based on the floor reaction force estimated using a disturbance observer. The validity of the proposed control system is verified through some experiments.