Novel algorithm of gait planning of hydraulic quadruped robot to avoid foot slidingand reduce impingement

In order to solve kinematic redundancy problems of a hydraulic quadruped walking robot,which include leg dragging,sliding,impingement against the ground,an improved gait planning algorithm for this robot is proposed in this paper.First,the foot trajectory is designated as the improved composite cycloid foot trajectory.Second,the landing angle of each leg of the robot is controlled to satisfy friction cone to improve the stability performance of the robot.Then with the controllable landing angle of quadruped robot and a geometry method,the kinematic equation is derived in this paper.Finally,agait planning method of quadruped robot is proposed,a dynamic co-simulation is done with ADAMS and MATLAB,and practical experiments are conducted.The validity of the proposed algorithm is confirmed through the co-simulation and experimentation.The results show that the robot can avoid sliding,reduce impingement,and trot stably in trot gait.

Gait planning and intelligent control for a quadruped robot

We present a method for designing free gaits for a structurally symmetrical quadruped robot capable of performing statically stable, omnidirectional walking on irregular terrain. The robot＇s virtual model is constructed and a control algorithm is proposed by applying virtual components at some strategic locations. The deliberative-based controller can generate flexible sequences of leg transferences while maintaining walking speed, and choose optimum foothold for moving leg based on integration data of exteroceptive terrain profile. Simulation results are presented to show the gait＇s efficiency and system＇s stability in adapting to an uncertain terrain.

Design,Mobility Analysis and Gait Planning of a Leech-like Soft Crawling Robot with Stretching and Bending Deformation

Soft climbing/crawling robots have been attracting increasing attention in the soft robotics community,and many prototypes with basic locomotion have been implemented.Most existing soft robots achieve locomotion by planar bending deformation and lack sufficient mobility.Enhancing the mobility of soft climbing/crawling robots is still an open and challenging issue.To this end,we present a novel pneumatic leech-like soft robot,Leechbot,with both bending and stretching deformation for locomotion.With a morphological structure,the robot consists of a three-chambered actuator in the middle for the main motion,two chamber-net actuators that act as ankles,and two suckers at the ends for anchoring on surfaces.The peristaltic motion for locomotion is implemented by body stretching,and direction changing is achieved by body bending.Due to the novel design and two deformation modes,the robot can make turns and transit between different surfaces;the robot,hence,has excellent mobility.The development of the robot prototype is presented in detail in this paper.To control its motion,tests were carried out to determine the relationship between step length and air pressure as well as the relationship between motion speed and periodic delay time.A kinematic model was established,and the kinematic mobility and surface transitionability were analyzed.Gait planning based on the inflating sequence of the actuating chambers is presented for straight crawling,turn making,and transiting between surfaces and was verified by a series of experiments with the prototype.The results show that a high mobility in soft climbing/crawling robots can be achieved by a novel design and by proper gait planning.

Minimum-Time and Minimum-Jerk Gait Planning in Joint Space for Assistive Lower Limb Exoskeleton

Assistive lower limb exoskeleton robot has been developed to help paraplegic patients walk again.A gait planning method of this robot must be able to plan a gait based on gait parameters,which can be changed during the stride according to human intention or walking conditions.The gait is usually planned in cartesian space,which has shortcomings such as singularities that may occur in inverse kinematics equations,and the angular velocity of the joints cannot be entered into the calculations.Therefore,it is vital to have a gait planning method in the joint space.In this paper,a minimum-time and minimum-jerk planner is proposed for the robot joints.To do so,a third-order system is defined,and the cost function is introduced to minimize the jerk of the joints throughout the stride.The minimum time required is calculated to keep the angular velocity trajectory within the range specified by the motor’s maximum speed.Boundary conditions of the joints are determined to secure backward balance and fulfill gait parameters.Finally,the proposed gait planning method is tested by its implementation on the Exoped®exoskeleton.

Energy-efficient Bio-inspired Gait Planning and Control for Biped Robot Based on Human Locomotion Analysis

In this paper an experiment of human locomotion was carried out using a motion capture system to extract the human gait features. The modifiable key gait parameters affecting the dominant performance of biped robot walking were obtained from the extracted human gait features. Based on the modifiable key gait parameters and the Allowable Zero Moment Point （ZMP） Variation Region （AZR）, we proposed an effective Bio-inspired Gait Planning （BGP） and control scheme for biped robot to- wards a given travel distance D. First, we construct an on-line Bio-inspired Gait Synthesis algorithm （BGSN） to generate a complete walking gait motion using the modifiable key gait parameters. Second, a Bio-inspired Gait Parameters Optimization algorithm （BGPO） is established to minimize the energy consumption of all actuators and guarantee biped robot walking with certain walking stability margin. Third, the necessary controllers for biped robot were introduced in briefly. Simulation and experiment results demonstrated the effectiveness of the proposed method, and the gait control system was implemented on DRC-XT humanoid robot.

A Smooth and Efficient Gait Planning for Humanoids Based on Human ZMP

Based on the ZMP(zero moment point)trajectory and the walking data of human,a new method is proposed to improve the robot walking smoothness as well as to save energy.Firstly,a measurement system is designed to measure the data of humans including the ZMP trajectory and the waist trajectory.Secondly,a new gait planning method which includes presetting the allowable ZMP region is proposed through analyzing human data.Thirdly,the new planning method is applied to the multi-link model based gait planning method.Finally,the feasibility of the proposed method is verified by simulation and experiments.

Research on Biologically Inspired Hexapod Robot's Gait and Path Planning

Realistically there are many robot joints in the biologically inspired hexapod robot, so they will generate many complexities in the calculations of the gait and the path planning and the control variables. The software Solidworks and MSC. ADAMS are adopted to simulate and analyze the prototype model of the robot. By the simulations used in our design, the applicability of the tripod gait is validated, and the scheme which uses cubic spline curve as the endpoint of foot＇s path is feasible. The principles, methods, and processes of the simulation of hexapod robot are illustrated. A methodology is proposed to get the robot inverse solution in ADAMS, and to simplify the theoretical calculation, and further more to improve the efficiency of the design.

Undulatory gait planning method of multi-legged robot with passive-spine

In this paper,we propose a new gait planning method for a multi-legged robot which has only 1 degree-of-freedom in each leg and has a passive body joint between two body segments.We firstly introduce the Finite State Machine(FSM)to the undulatory gait planning method of the 2n-legged robot.Then,the undulatory gait sequence for straight line motion is achieved by undulations motion.The idea that legged locomotion is achievable by less actuation of 2n-legged robot as well as the gait planning methods are verified finally by simulations and experiments.

Inverted Modelling:An Effective Way to Support Motion Planning of Legged Mobile Robots

This paper presents an effective way to support motion planning of legged mobile robots—Inverted Modelling,based on the equivalent metamorphic mechanism concept.The difference from the previous research is that we herein invert the equivalent parallel mechanism.Assuming the leg mechanisms are hybrid links,the body of robot being considered as fixed platform,and ground as moving platform.The motion performance is transformed and measured in the body frame.Terrain and joint limits are used as input parameters to the model,resulting in the representation which is independent of terrains and particular poses in Inverted Modelling.Hence,it can universally be applied to any kind of legged robots as global motion performance framework.Several performance measurements using Inverted Modelling are presented and used in motion performance evaluation.According to the requirements of actual work like motion continuity and stability,motion planning of legged robot can be achieved using different measurements on different terrains.Two cases studies present the simulations of quadruped and hexapod robots walking on rugged roads.The results verify the correctness and effectiveness of the proposed method.

Design of bionic goat quadruped robot mechanism and walking gait planning

In order to improve the walking stability and obstacle jumping ability of the robot on the slope,the goat was taken as the bionic prototype,a kind of bionic goat quadruped robot has been designed.By the bionic principle,the mechanical structure of the quadruped robot was designed,and the Denavit-Hartenberg(D-H)method was used to build the kinematic model,through which the forward and inverse kinematics of the robot was calculated,thus the equations of velocity and acceleration of the joint angle change were obtained during the quadruped robot motion,providing control theory foundation for robots.During walk gait planning,a low contact compact foot trajectory planning method using a high order polynomial curve was used to carry out the foot trajectory planning of the robot for the swing phase and stance phase.Through MATLAB software simulation,the simulation results of MATLAB software showed that the trajectory of the foot of the quadruped robot was semi-elliptic in a gait cycle,which were basically consistent with the foot trajectory obtained from the previous goat slope walking test.Therefore,the simulation results by MATLAB software showed that the foot trajectory was reasonable.Based on this,a gait plan was carried out,and the sequence of the lift leg steps of the robot was obtained.The test platform for the whole machine was built.The results showed that the height of the leg of the quadruped robot was 7.37 cm,and the length of the gait was 28.40 cm.Compared with the planned average gait length S=30 cm and average step height H=7 cm,the error of the leg height and the gait length was 5.28%and 5.33%,respectively.The designed gait planning achieved the expected results.The knee joint angle varied from 126.3°to 156.1°,and the hip joint angle varied from 103.9°to 138.4°.The changes in the joint angle of the quadruped robot could prove the correctness of the foot motion trajectory planning,which will provide a theoretical basis for the structural design and gait planning of the quadruped robot.

Design and Analysis of Gecko-like Robot

Gecko-like robot（Geckobot）,an important branch of bionic robotics,is a robot that simulates gecko＇s capacity to climb walls and ceilings.The work environment of the traditional wall-climbing robot is greatly limited as the moving structure and adsorption principle of the robot have nothing to do with the real gecko.However,the adsorption principle and moving mode of the real gecko can provide a new way to break through the restrictions of the traditional wall-climbing robot.Inspired by the moving mechanism of geckos, this paper develops the Geckobot with motile body.Two types of Geckobots are addressed：one with compliant flat bar as the body,and the other with prismatic joint as the body.The compliant body not only resembles the moving mode of the real gecko body,but also simplifies the Geckobot＇s structure.The prismatic joint body is used to adapt the change of body length in ground-to-wall transition. The gait planning on the plane and the transition between perpendicular intersectional planes is discussed,with an emphasis on the analysis of the kinematics degree of freedom（DOF） and body posture.Central pattern generator（CPG） neural network is realized in LabVIEW and utilized to control Geckobot＇s movement.The CPG scheme in Lab VIEW is given,and how CPG is used to control Geckobot to turn or move forward is explored.Simulations are conducted in ADAMS to verify the feasibility of the structure design and gait planning and to acquire some parameters for practical Geckobot development.The experiment with Geckobot-Ⅰand Geckobot-Ⅱon their crawling capacity on the plane and the ground-to-wall transition finds that the robot can complete the crawling movement and ground-to-wall transition,verifying the feasibility of the structure design,gait planning and the CPG motion control.The Geckobot structure design approach,gait planning and the CPG motion control presented would be useful for the research on wall-climbing robots.

Optimal Gait for Bioinspired Climbing Robots Using Dry Adhesion： A Quasi-Static Investigation

Legged robots relying on dry adhesives for vertical climbing are required to preload their feet against the wall to increase contact surface area and consequently maximize adhesion force. Preloading a foot causes a redistribution of forces in the entire robot, including contact forces between the other feet and the wall. An inappropriate redistribution of these forces can cause irreparable detachment of the robot from the vertical surface. This paper investigates an optimal preloading and detaching strategy that minimizes energy consumption, while retaining safety, during locomotion on vertical surfaces. The gait of a six-legged robot is planned using a quasi-static model that takes into account both the structure of the robot and the character- istics of the adhesive material. The latter was modelled from experimental data collected for this paper. A constrained optimi- zation routine is used, and its output is a sequence of optimal posture and motor torque set-points.