Skip to main content
SpringerLink
Log in

Energy efficiency onboard hydraulic power for quadruped robot based on high-low double pumps supply

  • Original Article
  • Published:
Journal of Mechanical Science and Technology Aims and scope Submit manuscript

Abstract

This work presents a high energy efficiency onboard hydraulic system for quadruped robot. Firstly, based on the rhythmic motion and mechanical characteristics of leg joints, the energy supply mode that supplies low-pressure oil and high-pressure oil separately for the swing phase and supporting phase is used, and the switch between different oil circuits for each legs is implemented by two digital on-off valves. What’s more, to obtain the pressure dynamics characteristics and energy consumption model, the mathematical models is deduced, and the analysis results illustrates that a better rate response can be achieved by adjusting time offset reasonable properly. Finally, the simulations and experiments are conducted to prove that the proposed system shows better energy efficiency compared with that of single pump supply pressure system, meanwhile, the fast dynamic response and the high tracking accuracy are also maintained.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this article

Log in via an institution

Price excludes VAT (USA)
Tax calculation will be finalised during checkout.

Instant access to the full article PDF.

Institutional subscriptions

Similar content being viewed by others

Abbreviations

HAA :

Hip abduction and adduction joint

HFE :

Hip flexion and extension joint

KFE :

Knee flexion and extension joint

E u,I :

Useful work of actuator i

E total :

Total energy consumption

P :

Supply pressure

P l :

Low supply pressure

P h :

High supply pressure

Q leak :

Leak flow

Q r :

Rated flow

Q v :

Flow coming into actuators

Q pis,h, Q r,h :

Chamber flow

v i,p :

Piston velocity of elongation of ith actuator

v i,n :

Piston velocity of retraction of ith actuator

A pis :

Area of piston chamber

A r :

Area of ring chamber

η :

Coefficient of leakage

T 1 :

Time interval of supporting phase

T 2 :

Time interval of swing phase

θ r1, θ r2, θ r3 :

Joint angle of HFE, KFE and HAA

l act1, l act2, l act3 :

Actuator length of HFE, KFE and HAA

x f, y f, Z f :

Coordinates under the hip coordinate system

K 1 :

Steady-state gain of digital on-off valve

K v :

Digital on-off valve gain

ω v :

Spool natural frequency of digital on-off valve

ω :

Natural frequency ratio of servo valve

ξ :

Damping ratio of servo valve

x v :

Displacement of digital on-off valve

x sv :

Displacement of servo valve

x total :

Total position stroke

x 0 :

Initial position stroke

h :

High pressure digital on-off valve

l :

Low pressure digital on-off valve

A v :

Flow area of port of digital on-off valve

△P :

Pressure drop of orifice of digital on-off valve

β e :

Effective bulk modulus of the system

f f :

Friction force inside cylinder

f l :

External force outside cylinder

f h :

Output force of actuator

k c,V st :

Parameters of static friction

C b :

Damping coefficient

T :

Gait cycle

H :

Step height

L :

Step length

△t :

Time offset

References

  1. C. Gonzalez, What’s the difference between pneumatic, hydraulic, and electrical actuators?, Machine Design, 17 (2015).

  2. M. Hemmi, Y. Hirota, H. Nabae, G. Endo and K. Suzumori, Development and test of lightweight, low friction, high power hydraulic actuator for tough robots, JSME Annu. Conf. Robot. Mechatronics (2017) 2A2-B02.

  3. M. Y. Harper, J. V. Nicholson, E. G. Collins, J. Pusey and J. E. Clark, Energy efficient navigation for running legged robots, 2019 International Conference on Robotics and Automation (ICRA), Montreal, Canada (2019) 6770–6776.

  4. P. Arena, L. Patané and S. Taffara, Energy efficiency of a quadruped robot with neuro-inspired control in complex environments, Energies, 14 (2) (2021) 433.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  5. J. Hwangbo, J. Lee, A. Dosovitskiy, D. Bellicoso, V. Tsounis, V. Koltun and M. Hutter, Learning agile and dynamic motor skills for legged robots, Science Robotics, 4 (26) (2019) 5872.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  6. J. Dong, B. Jin, S. Zhai, Z. Liu and Y. Cheng, Planning and analysis of centroid fluctuation gait for hydraulic hexapod robot, IEEE Access, 9 (2021) 63538–63549.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  7. B. Cho, S.-W. Kim, S. Shin, J.-H. Oh, H.-S. Park and H.-W. Park, Energy-efficient hydraulic pump control for legged robots using model predictive control, IEEE/ASME Transactions on Mechatronics, 28 (1) (2023) 3–14.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  8. F. Guenther, H. Q. Vu and F. Iida, Improving legged robot hopping by using coupling-based series elastic actuation, IEEE/ASME Transactions on Mechatronics, 24 (2) (2019) 413–423.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  9. J. Chen, Z. Liang, Y. Zhu, C. Liu, L. Zhang, L. Hao and J. Zhao, Towards the exploitation of physical compliance in segmented and electrically actuated robotic legs: A review focused on elastic mechanisms, Sensors, 19 (24) (2019) 5351.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  10. C. Zhen, J. Luo and Y. Fu, Variable stiffness control and implementation of hydraulic sea based on virtual spring leg, 2016 IEEE International Conference on Mechatronics and Automation, Harbin, China (2016) 677–682.

  11. E. Tanfener, Design and experimental verification of a clutched parallel elastic actuation mechanism for legged locomotion, Master’s Thesis, Middle East Technical University (2022).

  12. V. D. Amara, J. Malzahn, Z. Ren, W. Roozing and N. Tsagarakis, On the efficient control of series-parallel compliant articulated robots, 2020 IEEE International Conference on Robotics and Automation (ICRA) (2020) 385–391.

  13. U. Culha and U. Saranli, Quadrupedal bounding with an actuated spinal joint, 2011 IEEE International Conference on Robotics and Automation (2011) 1392–1397.

  14. Y. K. Kim, W. Seol and J. Park, Biomimetic quadruped robot with a spinal joint and optimal spinal motion via reinforcement learning, Journal of Bionic Engineering, 18 (6) (2021) 1280–1290.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  15. B. Cho, M.-S. Kim, S.-W. Kim, S. Shin, Y. Jeong, J.-H. Oh and H.-W. Park, Design of a compact embedded hydraulic power unit for bipedal robots, IEEE Robotics and Automation Letters, 6 (2) (2021) 3631–3638.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  16. B. Cho, S.-W. Kim, S. Shin, M.-S. Kim, J.-H. Oh and H.-W. Park, Energy efficient control of onboard hydraulic power unit for hydraulic bipedal robots, The Journal of Korea Robotics Society, 16 (2) (2021) 86–93.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  17. Y. Xue, J. Yang, J. Shang and Z. Wang, Energy efficient fluid power in autonomous legged robotics based on bionic multistage energy supply, Advanced Robotics, 28 (21) (2014) 1445–1457.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  18. W. Fan, T. Liu, J. Yi, X. Huang, B. Zhang, X. Zhang and S. Wang, A passive hydraulic auxiliary system designed for increasing legged robot payload and efficiency, 2021 IEEE International Conference on Robotics and Automation (ICRA) (2021) 3097–3103.

  19. E. Guglielmino, C. Semini, Y. Yang, D. Caldwell, H. Kogler and R. Scheidl, Energy efficient fluid power in autonomous legged robotics, Dynamic Systems and Control Conference, 48937 (2009) 847–854.

    Google Scholar 

  20. Z. Hua, X. Rong, Y. Li, H. Chai, B. Li and S. Zhang, Analysis and verification on energy consumption of the quadruped robot with passive compliant hydraulic servo actuator, Applied Sciences, 10 (1) (2020) 340.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  21. Y. Shi, M. Li, F. Zha, L. Sun, W. Guo, C. Ma and Z. Li, Force-controlled compensation scheme for pq valve-controlled asymmetric cylinder used on hydraulic quadruped robots, Journal of Bionic Engineering, 17 (6) (2020) 1139–1151.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  22. N. D. Manring and R. C. Fales, Hydraulic Control Systems, John Wiley & Sons (2019).

  23. W. Deng, J. Yao, Y. Wang, X. Yang and J. Chen, Output feedback backstepping control of hydraulic actuators with valve dynamics compensation, Mechanical Systems and Signal Processing, 158 (2021) 107769.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  24. J. Na, Y. Li, Y. Huang, G. Gao and Q. Chen, Output feedback control of uncertain hydraulic servo systems, IEEE Transactions on Industrial Electronics, 67 (1) (2019) 490–500.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  25. T. Boaventura, Hydraulic compliance control of the quadruped robot hyq, Ph.D. Thesis, University of Genova, Genova (2013).

    Google Scholar 

  26. G. Zhang, Z. Jiang, Y. Li, H. Chai, T. Chen and Y. Li, Active compliance control of the hydraulic actuated leg prototype, Assembly Automation, 37 (3) (2017) 356–368.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  27. Z. Hua, X. Rong, Y. Li, H. Chai and S. Zhang, Active compliance control on the hydraulic quadruped robot with passive compliant servo actuator, IEEE Access, 7 (2019) 163449–163460.

    Article  Google Scholar 

Download references

Acknowledgments

This work is supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China [Grant No. 62073191, 91748211], the Scientific Research Foundation for High-level Talents of Anhui University of Science and Technology [Grant No. 13200392], the Major scientific and technological innovation project of Shandong Province [Grant No. 2019JZZY020317] and the Key research and development project of Anhui Province [Grant No. 2022i01020015].

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. School of Artificial Intelligence, Anhui University of Science and Technology, Huainan, 232001, China

    Zisen Hua, Zhiwei Zhang, Xianhua Li & Yaru Sun

  2. School of Control Science and Engineering, Shandong University, Jinan, 250013, China

    Hui Chai & Yibin Li

Authors
  1. Zisen Hua
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  2. Zhiwei Zhang
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  3. Hui Chai
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  4. Yibin Li
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  5. Xianhua Li
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  6. Yaru Sun
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Zisen Hua.

Additional information

Zisen Hua was born in 1988. He received the B.S. and M.S. degrees from Shandong Jianzhu University, China, in 2011 and 2014, respectively, and received the Ph.D. degree from Shandong University, China in 2020. His research interests include mechanical structure optimization and analysis, hydraulic servo transmission, and control systems.

Zhiwei Zhang was born in 1998. He received the B.S. degrees from Anhui University of Science and Technology, China, in 2020. He is currently a master student at Anhui University of Science and Technology in Chain. His research interests include bionic legged robot and hydraulic servo control system.

Hui Chai was born in 1981. He received the B.S., the M.Sc. and the Ph.D. degrees from Shandong University, China in 2004, 2007 and 2016. He is currently an Associate Research Fellow in School of Control Science and Engineering, Shandong University, China. His research interests in dynamic modeling and locomotion control on legged robot.

Yibin Li was born in 1970. He received his B.S. and Ph.D. degrees from Tianjin University, China, in 1982 and 2006 respectively. He received his master degree from Shandong University of Science and Technology, China, in 1988. He is currently a Professor in School of Control Science and Engineering, Shandong University, China. His research interests include robotics, mechatronics and intelligent control.

Xianhua Li was born in 1981. He received his Ph.D. degrees from Shanghai University, China, in 2012. He is currently a Professor Anhui University of Science and Technology, Huainan, China. His main research directions include intelligent machinery and robots, innovative design of mechanical products, etc.

Yaru Sun was born in 1989. Her received B.S. and M.S. degrees from Shandong Jianzhu University, China, in 2014 and 2017, respectively. Currently, she is a lecturer, who works in Anhui University of Science and Technology. Her research interests include engineering mechanics, hydraulic servo transmission and control system.

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Check for updates. Verify currency and authenticity via CrossMark

Cite this article

Hua, Z., Zhang, Z., Chai, H. et al. Energy efficiency onboard hydraulic power for quadruped robot based on high-low double pumps supply. J Mech Sci Technol 37, 4857–4867 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12206-023-0838-2

Download citation

  • Received:

  • Revised:

  • Accepted:

  • Published:

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s12206-023-0838-2

Keywords

Search

Navigation