Design and control of a jointed-leg type of a quadrupedal robot for locomotion on irregular ground

In this paper, a study of a quadrupedal walking robot capable of walking on the irregular ground is presented. The robot has specially-designed feet with toes making soft and safe landings on uneven surfaces. Using the toe angle and landing force sensors integrated within the feet, its gait control algorithm can adapt the foot trajectory to the ground profile, while the body weight is evenly distributed on the supporting legs. After the landing of a foot, the roll and pitch angles of the body are measured and controlled to keep the body attitude parallel to the plane of support. The contents of this study are the design concept and working principle of the foot, including the gait control algorithm for walk on the irregular ground. Experimental results are reported.