Frontiers in Robotics and AI (Mar 2023)

High-speed running quadruped robot with a multi-joint spine adopting a 1DoF closed-loop linkage

  • Ojiro Matsumoto,
  • Hiroaki Tanaka,
  • Takumi Kawasetsu,
  • Koh Hosoda

DOI
https://doi.org/10.3389/frobt.2023.1148816
Journal volume & issue
Vol. 10

Abstract

Read online

Improving the mobility of robots is an important goal for many real-world applications and implementing an animal-like spine structure in a quadruped robot is a promising approach to achieving high-speed running. This paper proposes a feline-like multi-joint spine adopting a one-degree-of-freedom closed-loop linkage for a quadruped robot to realize high-speed running. We theoretically prove that the proposed spine structure can realize 1.5 times the horizontal range of foot motion compared to a spine structure with a single joint. Experimental results demonstrate that a robot with the proposed spine structure achieves 1.4 times the horizontal range of motion and 1.9 times the speed of a robot with a single-joint spine structure.

Keywords