Determining Optimal Gait Parameters for a Statically Stable Walking Human Assistive Quadruped Robot

Abstract

In this paper we propose a method to determine an optimal statically stable gait for a quadruped robot walking in the presence of an expected disturbance. There exists a tradeoff between a stable gait and an energy efficient gait. Our goal is to determine an energy efficient quadruped gait that will maintain stability while a human uses the device to stabilize themselves while walking. In order to determine an optimal gait, we present a cost function consisting of an energy term and a stability term. A method of evaluating the cost function using dynamics and quasi-static analysis is demonstrated. The optimization is implemented for a human assistive device currently being designed and the results are verified in simulation.