Start Date
19-5-2023 10:20 AM
End Date
19-5-2023 10:40 AM
Document Type
Full Paper
Keywords
Multimodal locomotion, Anisotropic compliance, Quadruped
Description
In robotics, there is a variety of general forms of locomotion for a quadruped. This paper focuses on the design challenges for three of the most common forms: walking, climbing, and swimming. Many robots have been designed that can perform a combination of these modalities with the use of interchangeable parts. However, there is limited research on a design that incorporates the requirements of compliance and robustness for walking on rugged terrain, multiple attachment points for climbing, and sufficient drag properties for swimming and walking through resistive media within a singular leg configuration. In this paper, the design, fabrication, and development of legs for a quadrupedal robot capable of achieving locomotion in all three modalities- walking, climbing, and swimming- without the need for interchangeable parts is presented. The resultant foot design was then tested and verified on a physical platform. Using the presented foot design, the lightweight (8 kg) quadrupedal platform, the Scansorial, Terrestrial, and Aquatic Robot Quadruped (STARQ), was able to accomplish walking at 25 cm s−1 , climbing at speeds up to 15 cm s−1 at slopes up to 70° and up vertical slopes at slower speeds, and swimming at 8.7 cm s−1 .
DOI
https://doi.org/10.5038/CWIS3145
Design, Fabrication, and Verification of a Robot Leg for Multimodal Locomotion
In robotics, there is a variety of general forms of locomotion for a quadruped. This paper focuses on the design challenges for three of the most common forms: walking, climbing, and swimming. Many robots have been designed that can perform a combination of these modalities with the use of interchangeable parts. However, there is limited research on a design that incorporates the requirements of compliance and robustness for walking on rugged terrain, multiple attachment points for climbing, and sufficient drag properties for swimming and walking through resistive media within a singular leg configuration. In this paper, the design, fabrication, and development of legs for a quadrupedal robot capable of achieving locomotion in all three modalities- walking, climbing, and swimming- without the need for interchangeable parts is presented. The resultant foot design was then tested and verified on a physical platform. Using the presented foot design, the lightweight (8 kg) quadrupedal platform, the Scansorial, Terrestrial, and Aquatic Robot Quadruped (STARQ), was able to accomplish walking at 25 cm s−1 , climbing at speeds up to 15 cm s−1 at slopes up to 70° and up vertical slopes at slower speeds, and swimming at 8.7 cm s−1 .