This paper presents a novel whole body manipulation with a quadruped or hexapod robot. We have developed a quadruped robot with a total of twelve joints. The robot can stand on its knees and its two legs can serve as arms. It can manipulate a relatively large and heavy object and can also perform tasks exerting a force on an external object by using its body and arms. The two legs standing on their knees support the body. Therefore the motion of the body is constrained. This paper proposes an appropriate contact mode for their distal links, allowing the body to have a two degree-of-freedom motion suitable for the whole body manipulation even if the floor or ground is not completely even. This paper also presents a wrist forming a parallel manipulator with six degrees-of-freedom, together with the two arms. A newly developed quadruped robot is briefly introduced.
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