Whole quadruped manipulation

Abstract

This paper proposes whole quadruped manipulation, a novel manipulation with a quadruped robot using its whole body. The quadruped robot we have developed can stand on its knees and its two legs can serve as arms. The robot can hold a relatively big and heavy object in its two arms, and can manipulate it by moving its body. The desired configurations of the robot during the manipulation are at an increased mobility singularity if the whole distal links of its two legs are in contact with the floor or ground. The problem with the singularity is that the mobility of the robot changes significantly around it. This paper shows a contact type for the two legs to avoid such a singularity. We verify that our quadruped robot can perform the proposed manipulation experimentally.