Design and Control of a Quadruped Robot with Changeable Configuration.

This paper introduces a quadruped robot with a wide range of motion for joints, which provides a basis for the robot to change its configuration. Two basic configurations are defined for the robot, including mammal-like configuration, which the front and hind knees point to each other and one reptile-like configuration with sprawling legs. Different control modes are configured to make the robot can switch between different configuration, which gives it ability to face different environments. For the mammal-like configuration, a parametric trotting gait is designed to traverse structural terrain level ground. For the reptile-like configuration, a turtle gait is designed to achieve robust locomotion on uneven terrain. Simulations and experiments show that the robot is capable to move on multiple terrains, including doorsills, slopes, stones. This paper demonstrates that through the design of leg foot configuration, some difficult tasks can be achieved in a rather simple way without using complicated control algorithms, which shows the potential of multi configuration in the application of quadruped robot.