Dynamic locomotion of a biomorphic quadruped 'Tekken' robot using various gaits: walk, trot,free-gait and bound

摘要

Numerous quadruped walking and running robots have been developed to date. Each robot walks by means of a crawl, walk,trot or pace gait, or runs by means of a bound and/or gallop gait. However, it is very difficult to design a single robot thatcan both walk and run because of problems related to mechanisms and control. In response to this, we adapted a biologicalcontrol method for legged locomotion in order to develop a dog-like quadruped robot we have named `Tekken'. Tekkenhas a control system that incorporates central pattern generators, reflexes and responses as well as a mechanism that makesthe most of the control system. Tekken, which is equipped with a single mechanism, an unchangeable control method, andmodifiable parameters, is capable of achieving walking and trotting on flat terrain, can walk using a free gait on irregularterrain, and is capable of running on flat terrain using a bounding gait. In this paper, we describe the mechanism, the controlmethod and the experimental results of our new development.