Bionic lightweight design of limb leg units for hydraulic quadruped robots by additive manufacturing and topology optimization

Galloping cheetahs,climbing mountain goats,and load hauling horses all show desirable locomotion capability,which motivates the development of quadruped robots.Among various quadruped robots,hydraulically driven quadruped robots show great potential in unstructured environments due to their discrete landing positions and large payloads.As the most critical movement unit of a quadruped robot,the limb leg unit(LLU)directly affects movement speed and reliability,and requires a compact and lightweight design.Inspired by the dexterous skeleton–muscle systems of cheetahs and humans,this paper proposes a highly integrated bionic actuator system for a better dynamic performance of an LLU.We propose that a cylinder barrel with multiple element interfaces and internal smooth channels is realized using metal additive manufacturing,and hybrid lattice structures are introduced into the lightweight design of the piston rod.In addition,additive manufacturing and topology optimization are incorporated to reduce the redundant material of the structural parts of the LLU.The mechanical properties of the actuator system are verified by numerical simulation and experiments,and the power density of the actuators is far greater than that of cheetah muscle.The mass of the optimized LLU is reduced by 24.5%,and the optimized LLU shows better response time performance when given a step signal,and presents a good trajectory tracking ability with the increase in motion frequency.

Modeling and Parameter Sensitivity Analysis of Valve‑Controlled Helical Hydraulic Rotary Actuator System

As a type of hydraulic rotary actuator,a helical hydraulic rotary actuator exhibits a large angle,high torque,and compact structure;hence,it has been widely used in various fields.However,its core technology is proprietary to several companies and thus has not been disclosed.Furthermore,the relevant reports are primarily limited to the component level.The dynamic characteristics of the output when a helical rotary actuator is applied to a closed-loop system are investigated from the perspective of driving system design.Two main aspects are considered:one is to establish a reliable mathematical model and the other is to consider the effect of system parameter perturbation on the output.In this study,a detailed mechanical analysis of a helical rotary hydraulic cylinder is first performed,factors such as friction and load are considered,and an accurate dynamic model of the actuator is established.Subsequently,considering the nonlinear characteristics of pressure flow and the dynamic characteristics of the valve,a dynamic model of a valve-controlled helical rotary actuator angle closed-loop system is described based on sixth-order nonlinear state equations,which has never been reported previously.After deriving the system model,a sensitivity analysis of 23 main parameters in the model with a perturbation of 10%is performed under nine operating conditions.Finally,the system dynamics model and sensitivity analysis results are verified via a prototype experiment and co-simulation,which demonstrate the reliability of the theoretical results obtained in this study.The results provide an accurate mathematical model and analysis basis for the structural optimization or control compensation of similar systems.

A stability locomotion-control strategy for quadruped robots with center-of-mass dynamic planning

Locomotion stability is essential for controlling quadruped robots and adapting them to unstructured terrain.We propose a control strategy with center-of-mass(CoM)dynamic planning for the stable locomotion of these robots.The motion trajectories of the swing legs are synchronized with the CoM of the robot.To implement the synchronous control scheme,we adjusted the swing legs to form a support triangle.The strategy is applicable to both static walk gait and dynamic trot gait.In the motion control processes of the robot legs,the distribution of the ground reaction forces is optimized to minimize joint torque and locomotion energy consumption.We also used an improved joint-torque controller with varied controller coefficients in the stance and swing phases.The simulation and experimental results demonstrate that the robot can complete omnidirectional locomotion in both walk and trot gaits.At a given locomotion speed,the stability margins for the robot during walking and trotting were 27.25%and 37.25%higher,respectively,than in the scheme without CoM planning.The control strategy with energy consumption optimization(ECO)reduced the energy consumption of the robot in walk and trot gaits by 11.25%and 13.83%,respectively,from those of the control scheme without ECO.

Contact detection with multi-information fusion for quadruped robot locomotion under unstructured terrain

Reliable foot-to-ground contact state detection is crucial for the locomotion control of quadruped robots in unstructured environments.To improve the reliability and accuracy of contact detection for quadruped robots,a detection approach based on the probabilistic contact model with multi-information fusion is presented to detect the actual contact states of robotic feet with the ground.Moreover,a relevant control strategy to address unexpected early and delayed contacts is planned.The approach combines the internal state information of the robot with the measurements from external sensors mounted on the legs and feet of the prototype.The overall contact states are obtained by the classification of the model-based predicted probabilities.The control strategy for unexpected foot-to-ground contacts can correct the control actions of each leg of the robot to traverse cluttered environments by changing the contact state.The probabilistic model parameters are determined by testing on the single-leg experimental platform.The experiments are conducted on the experimental prototype,and results validate the contact detection and control strategy for unexpected contacts in unstructured terrains during walking and trotting.Compared with the body orientation under the time-based control method regardless of terrain,the root mean square errors of roll,pitch,and yaw respectively decreased by 60.07%,54.73%,and 64.50%during walking and 73.40%,61.49%,and 61.48%during trotting.