Realistic Mechanism and Behaviour Co-design of a One Legged Hopping Robot

Abstract

In contrast to the high specifications of commonly available mechanical parts, mobile robots (especially legged robots) display a relatively low performance when compared to the potential of their individual parts. Moreover, such robots are designed and optimized to perform only a small number of tasks. In this study, we present a two layer multi-objective optimization framework, used for mutual optimization of the mechanism and the behaviour of an agile monopod robot called Skippy. We use highly realistic dynamic models, with the aim to close the gap between reality and simulation, and we concurrently optimize the design and the behaviour parameters. The result is a Pareto front of robot designs and a set of command signals to achieve several athletic feats. This design study does not address the control aspect, but deals only with the physical ability of the robot, and it focuses on a planar one-legged robot.