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Gait Optimization for Quadruped Rovers

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  02 October 2019

Lukas Zhornyak
Affiliation:
Institute for Aerospace Studies, University of Toronto, Toronto, Canada, M3H 5T6 E-mail: lukas.zhornyak@mail.utoronto.ca
M. Reza Emami*
Affiliation:
Institute for Aerospace Studies, University of Toronto, Toronto, Canada, M3H 5T6 E-mail: lukas.zhornyak@mail.utoronto.ca Division of Space Engineering, Luleå University of Technology, Kiruna, Sweden, 98128
*
*Corresponding author. E-mail: emami@utias.utoronto.ca

Summary

This paper studies the gait characteristics of a quadruped rover that mimics domestic cats, and attempts to optimize these characteristics. The kinematics and dynamics formulation of the rover’s three-dimensional model is developed, and its gait, pose and corresponding control parameters are computed to minimize torque or maximize speed, using a genetic algorithm. The optimization model consists of a set of equality and inequality constraints that ensure the feasibility and stability of the gaits, while considering the entire gait spectrum that feline species exhibit. The optimal gaits for minimizing the torque closely resemble lateral sequence gaiting, with a trotting behaviour as speed increases. A running gait is obtained at the maximum speed. The optimization results appear to conform to the biological observations of feline species, suggesting the tendency of conserving energy in biological gaiting.

Type
Articles
Copyright
© Cambridge University Press 2019

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