Dynamic locomotion and whole-body control for quadrupedal robots

Abstract

This paper presents a framework which allows a quadrupedal robot to execute dynamic gaits including trot, pace and dynamic lateral walk, as well as a smooth transition between them. Our method relies on an online ZMP based motion planner which continuously updates the reference motion trajectory as a function of the contact schedule and the state of the robot. The planner is coupled with a hierarchical whole-body controller which optimizes the whole-body motion and contact forces by solving a cascade of prioritized tasks. We tested our framework on ANYmal, a fully torque controllable quadrupedal robot which is actuated by series-elastic actuators.