Passive compliant quadruped robot using Central Pattern Generators for locomotion control

Author

Rutishauser, Simon ; Spröwitz, Alexander ; Righetti, Ludovic ; Ijspeert, Auke Jan

Author_Institution

Sch. of Comput. & Commun. Sci., Biologically Inspired Robot. Group, Ecole Polytech. Fed. de Lausanne (EPFL), Lausanne

fYear

2008

fDate

19-22 Oct. 2008

Firstpage

710

Lastpage

715

Abstract

We present a new quadruped robot, ldquoCheetahrdquo, featuring three-segment pantographic legs with passive compliant knee joints. Each leg has two degrees of freedom - knee and hip joint can be actuated using proximal mounted RC servo motors, force transmission to the knee is achieved by means of a bowden cable mechanism. Simple electronics to command the actuators from a desktop computer have been designed in order to test the robot. A Central Pattern Generator (CPG) network has been implemented to generate different gaits. A parameter space search was performed and tested on the robot to optimize forward velocity.

Keywords

medical robotics; mobile robots; motion control; servomotors; Cheetah robot; RC servo motors; central pattern generators; knee joints; locomotion control; passive compliant quadruped robot; three-segment pantographic legs; Centralized control; Electronic equipment testing; Hip; Knee; Leg; Legged locomotion; Orbital robotics; Robots; Servomechanisms; Servomotors;

fLanguage

English

Publisher

ieee

Conference_Titel

Biomedical Robotics and Biomechatronics, 2008. BioRob 2008. 2nd IEEE RAS & EMBS International Conference on

Conference_Location

Scottsdale, AZ

Print_ISBN

978-1-4244-2882-3

Electronic_ISBN

978-1-4244-2883-0

Type

conf

DOI

10.1109/BIOROB.2008.4762878

Filename

4762878