Pace Running of a Quadruped Robot Driven by Pneumatic Muscle Actuators: An Experimental Study

Our goal is to design a neuromorphic locomotion controller for a prospective bioinspired quadruped robot driven by artificial muscle actuators. In this paper, we focus on achieving a running gait called a pace, in which the ipsilateral pairs of legs move in phase, while the two pairs together move o...

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Bibliographic Details
Published inApplied sciences Vol. 12; no. 9; p. 4146
Main Authors Fukuoka, Yasuhiro, Komatsu, Ryunosuke, Machii, Kenta, Yokota, Masaaki, Tobe, Masaki, Ibrahim, Ahmad Najmuddin, Fukui, Takahiro, Habu, Yasushi
Format Journal Article
LanguageEnglish
Published Basel MDPI AG 20.04.2022
Subjects
Actuators
Adaptation
artificial muscle actuators
Artificial muscles
bio-inspired locomotion
Biomimetics
Central pattern generator
Control systems design
Controllers
Energy efficiency
Feedback
Fitness equipment
Gait
Leg
leg loading feedback
Legs
Locomotion
quadrupedal pace running
Robots
Running
Synchronism
two-level central pattern generators (CPG)
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Summary:Our goal is to design a neuromorphic locomotion controller for a prospective bioinspired quadruped robot driven by artificial muscle actuators. In this paper, we focus on achieving a running gait called a pace, in which the ipsilateral pairs of legs move in phase, while the two pairs together move out of phase, by a quadruped robot with realistic legs driven by pneumatic muscle actuators. The robot is controlled by weakly coupled two-level central pattern generators to generate a pace gait with leg loading feedback. Each leg is moved through four sequential phases like an animal, i.e., touch-down, stance, lift-off, and swing phases. We find that leg loading feedback to the central pattern generator can contribute to stabilizing pace running with an appropriate cycle autonomously determined by synchronizing each leg’s oscillation with the roll body oscillation without a human specifying the cycle. The experimental results conclude that our proposed neuromorphic controller is beneficial for achieving pace running by a muscle-driven quadruped robot.
ISSN:2076-3417
2076-3417
DOI:10.3390/app12094146