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Development of a biomimetic quadruped robot

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Abstract

This paper presents the design and prototype of a small quadruped robot whose walking motion is realized by two pie-zocomposite actuators. In the design, biomimetic ideas are employed to obtain the agility of motions and sustainability of a heavy load. The design of the robot legs is inspired by the leg configuration of insects, two joints (hip and knee) of the leg enable two basic motions, lifting and stepping. The robot frame is designed to have a slope relative to the horizontal plane, which makes the robot move forward. In addition, the bounding locomotion of quadruped animals is implemented in the robot. Experiments show that the robot can carry an additional load of about 100 g and run with a fairly high velocity. The quadruped prototype can be an important step towards the goal of building an autonomous mobile robot actuated by piezocomposite actuators.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Mechanical Design and Production Engineering, Konkuk University, 143-701, Seoul, Korea

    Thanhtam Ho, Sunghac Choi & Sangyoon Lee

Authors
  1. Thanhtam Ho
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  2. Sunghac Choi
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  3. Sangyoon Lee
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Sangyoon Lee.

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Ho, T., Choi, S. & Lee, S. Development of a biomimetic quadruped robot. J Bionic Eng 4, 193–199 (2007). https://doi.org/10.1016/S1672-6529(07)60032-8

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/S1672-6529(07)60032-8

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