Design and evaluation of quadruped gaits for amphibious spherical robots

摘要

Aiming at exploration tasks in complex amphibious environments, quadruped gaits were designed, implemented and evaluated for our amphibious spherical robot to enhance its adaptabilities to various terrains. A simplified locomotion model of the robot was established to analyze the walking process. Then three types of walk gait were implemented on the robotic platform using FPGA, which provided different stability and adjustable motion speeds to adapt various terrains. Furthermore, the attitude of the robot was estimated online using an inertial measurement unit. And the adopted gait was adaptively adjusted with the acquired compensation value, which ensured that the robot was able to walk on a slope no larger than 20 degrees. Evaluation experiments on robotic motion performance indicated that the amphibious spherical robot was capable of moving stably at different speeds in multiple environments, which enhanced its mobility and viability.