Design and Analysis of Quadruped Robot Leg with Variable Configuration

Abstract

Conventional legs for quadruped robot are facing problems such as heavy load and high energy consumption of motors. To address this challenge, this paper presents a quadruped robot leg with variable joint configuration and introduces the optimization design method of this leg. The leg can change the joint configuration during the motion of robot, which could help motors adapt ground reaction force more reasonably. The simulation results show that compared with typical leg structures, the variable configuration leg can theoretically reduce the peak torque and the energy consumption of motor to a certain extent, which might provide a possible solution for this problem.