Development of quadruped walking robot TITAN XII and its basic consideration on the control of large obstacle traversing motion

Abstract

Quadruped walking robots are expected to be utilized for various works on rugged terrain because it has minimum leg number to maintain static stability during walking motion and it can demonstrate high terrain adaptability by utilizing its high degrees of freedom. For these reasons, it has been studied for a long time. However, the study about traversing on rugged terrain by quadruped walking robot has not been done enough yet. In this paper, both basic strategy of motion control and mechanical design of a quadruped walking robots for large obstacle climbing are considered. In order to establish the basis of the control of quadruped walking robots to achieve large obstacle traversing motion with high energy efficiency, we make simulation experiments about body rising motion which essentially requires positive power consumption. We investigate the appropriate foot positions and internal forces which eliminate negative power consumption at the joint, then optimize the motion in consideration of characteristics of the installed actuators. Furthermore, a quadruped walking robot to go over large obstacle named“TITAN XII ”is proposed and its design concept and system integration are discussed. Finally, validity of simulation results and basic performance of TITAN XII are confirmed by experiments.

Keywords

• legged locomotion
• moving robot
• mechanism
• quadruped walking robot
• active ankle
• large obstacle climbing
• body rising motion