Cursorial quadrupeds exploit their limbs and bodies (i.e., body-limb coordination) to achieve faster locomotion speed when compared to that with only limbs. Extant studies examined various legged robots that utilize flexible spine bending. However, the control principle of body-limb coordination is not established to date. This study proposes a novel control scheme for body-limb coordination in which all degrees of freedom of the entire body aid each other in achieving higher performance. The 2D simulation results indicate that mutual sensory feedback between the limb and spine plays essential roles in generating their adaptive locomotion patterns in response to physical situations of the body parts and thereby in achieving faster locomotion speeds.
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