Static Gait Planning Method for Quadruped Robot Walking on Unknown Rough Terrain

Abstract

To enable quadruped robot to walk through unknown rough terrains without any machine vision system, a continuous static gait planning method is proposed in this paper. A algorithm for on-line terrain complexity evaluation according to touchdown times of swing feet is presented to make quadruped robot obtain the information of terrain without relying on machine vision system. Quadruped robot can obtain enough stability margin during walking process by using the proposed body trajectory planning method, and motion continuity of body can be guaranteed. In order to improve the terrain adaptability of quadruped robot, a tunable parameter is set in the body planning method, and the relationship between value of the tunable parameter and terrain complexity estimation is given to further improve terrain adaptability and energy utilization rate. With the proposed static gait generation method, quadruped robot can autonomous plan its static gait in real-time and travel over unknown rough terrains with enough stability margin. The simulation results show the correctness and effectiveness of the proposed method.