Dynamic control for a quadruped locomotion robot in consideration of the leg-support-exchange phenomenon.

Abstract

This paper proposes a new control method for quadruped walking robots in which the leg-support-exchange is lithely implemented. First, the authors formulate the leg-support-exchange phenomenon in 'Trot' using Lagrange's collision equation. Then the continuous walking can be numerically analyzed. Secondly, we propose a new control algorithm for leg-support-exchange. The conventional high gain local feedback causes many problems such as slip and excessive high torque in the leg-support-exchange phase of dynamic walking since it is impossible in this phase to prepare the proper reference values beforehand. In this algorithm, the control law is changed to 'free mode' or 'constant current mode' in order to adjust to the exvironment. The effectiveness of the proposed control strategy is confirmed by computer simulation and experiments using the walking robot 'COLT-1'.