Design and development of a cheetah robot under the neural mechanism controlling the leg´s muscles

The high speed running of legged robot raise higher requirements on the design and development of the robot and the control method. The mammals´ excellent performance, especially the cheetah, provides us much inspiration on control, mechanical design and etc. In this paper, a model of the cheetah robot is developed for researching the locomotory behaviors of fast running. Under the biological knowledge on neural mechanism, a new bio-inspired control method was proposed via controlling the muscles flexion and extension movements. Then, a bio-musculoskeletal hindlimb prototype was designed in this paper. The muscle-like actuator and the cheetah-like structure combining the bio-control approach provide more natural fashion for the new robot. Finally, the simulation of the bounding gait establishes good biological properties, cheetah-like leg´s trajectory. Experiment with the real hindlimb prototype validates the design and the development of the structure and the controller. In the near future, a final prototype will be manufactured with onboard power and air source.