Fore-Aft Leg Specialization Controller for a Dynamic Quadruped

Abstract

Many running animals, unlike their robotic counterparts, have distinct morphologies and functional roles for their front and rear legs. In this paper we present a new control approach for a 5kg autonomous dynamic quadruped that explicitly encodes separate roles for each contralateral pair of legs. This controller utilizes a functional dynamic decomposition similar to Raibert's three part control law, but focuses on fore-aft leg specialization to regulate the robot's performance. The velocity of this controller, which exceeds 5 body lengths per sec, is compared with an improved trajectory-based controller and shown to be significantly more robust to changes in environment.