Adaptive gait planning for quadruped robot based on center of inertia over rough terrain

Abstract

Controlling the quadruped robot for walking on a rough terrain without any visual perception is a great challenge. In the present study, a simple measuring method is proposed for obtaining the total force applied on the center of inertia of the quadruped robot with force sensing information in the static gait. Based on the zero moment point stable criterion, an extended criterion on the virtual supporting plane is presented to guarantee the stable walking of the quadruped robot. Moreover, an adaptive omnidirectional gait planning is developed for the quadruped robot applying the extended zero moment point on the center of inertia to obtain the stable criterion over rough terrain. It is found that when the proposed gait planning is applied on the quadruped robot, unknown surroundings successfully adapted without establishing the huge height map. Experiments are carried out to investigate walking of the quadruped robot at three different conditions, including the flat, rough terrain, and rough slope. It is concluded that the proposed method has reasonable performance in the studies case.