Kinematics analysis of a quadruped robot: Simulation and Evaluation

Abstract

Kinematics analysis is essential for finding the robot manipulator's joint motions. Using kinematics, we can determine how the robot's arms will move and the possible direction of that arm's end-effector. Kinematics analysis is split into two parts forward Kinematics and Inverse Kinematics. Forward Kinematics measure the positions and orientations of the robot's end-effector, and we can calculate the joint angles by using inverse kinematics. This study provided mathematical derivation for forward and Inverse kinematics to determine our robots’ positions and joint angles briefly. To implement different walking motions in a quadruped robot, firstly, we need to analyze the single-leg structure. In this study, we analyzed and derived the forward and inverse kinematics of the quadruped robots and verified their correlation. We used python and Pybullet physics engines to analyze our robot leg motions for mathematical programming.