Flexible part design of a galloping quadruped robot to save the energy

Abstract

In this paper, several devices for the flexible part design in the body of the galloping quadruped robot are proposed. In general, running motion requires much more energy than walking motion. Therefore animals such as cheetahs or horses which run fast use the flexibility of the waist to save the energy. Similarly, the flexible part of a galloping quadruped robot to mimic the waist of the animal can improve the energy efficiency. A robot body has been typically considered as a combination of rigid bodies just to support the core component of the controller and load in other previous studies. In this study, a flexible part device to mimic the waist of animal is proposed and applied to the middle body of the galloping quadruped robot. Then the required energy is calculated to show the benefit of the flexible part device of the robot.