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Dynamic bending of bionic flexible body driven by pneumatic artificial muscles(PAMs) for spinning gait of quadruped robot

  • Mechanism and Robotics
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Abstract

The body of quadruped robot is generally developed with the rigid structure. The mobility of quadruped robot depends on the mechanical properties of the body mechanism. It is difficult for quadruped robot with rigid structure to achieve better mobility walking or running in the unstructured environment. A kind of bionic flexible body mechanism for quadruped robot is proposed, which is composed of one bionic spine and four pneumatic artificial muscles(PAMs). This kind of body imitates the four-legged creatures’ kinematical structure and physical properties, which has the characteristic of changeable stiffness, lightweight, flexible and better bionics. The kinematics of body bending is derived, and the coordinated movement between the flexible body and legs is analyzed. The relationship between the body bending angle and the PAM length is obtained. The dynamics of the body bending is derived by the floating coordinate method and Lagrangian method, and the driving force of PAM is determined. The experiment of body bending is conducted, and the dynamic bending characteristic of bionic flexible body is evaluated. Experimental results show that the bending angle of the bionic flexible body can reach 18°. An innovation body mechanism for quadruped robot is proposed, which has the characteristic of flexibility and achieve bending by changing gas pressure of PAMs. The coordinated movement of the body and legs can achieve spinning gait in order to improve the mobility of quadruped robot.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. School of Mechatronic Engineering and Automation, Shanghai University, Shanghai, 200072, China

    Jingtao Lei & Huangying Yu

  2. School of Mechanical Engineering and Automation, Beihang University, Beijing, 100191, China

    Tianmiao Wang

Authors
  1. Jingtao Lei
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  2. Huangying Yu
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  3. Tianmiao Wang
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Jingtao Lei.

Additional information

LEI Jingtao, born in 1970, is currently an associate professor at School of Mechatronic Engineering and Automation, Shanghai University, China. She received her PhD degree from Beihang University, China, in 2007. She was a postdoctoral fellow at Robotics Institute of Beihang University from 2007 to 2009. Her main research interests include bionic robot and modular technology of service robot.

YU Huangying, born in 1989, is currently a master candidate at School of Mechatronic Engineering and Automation, Shanghai University, China. His research interests include bionic robot.

WANG Tianmiao, born in 1960, is currently a professor at School of Mechanical Engineering and Automation, Beihang University, China. He received his PhD degree from Northwestern Polytechnical University, China, in 1990. He was a postdoctoral fellow at National Intelligent Technology and Systems Laboratory, Tsinghua University, China, and Italian National Bionic Mechanics Laboratory from 1990 to 1995. His research interests include biomimetic robots, medical robots and robot modular technology.

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Lei, J., Yu, H. & Wang, T. Dynamic bending of bionic flexible body driven by pneumatic artificial muscles(PAMs) for spinning gait of quadruped robot. Chin. J. Mech. Eng. 29, 11–20 (2016). https://doi.org/10.3901/CJME.2015.1016.123

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.3901/CJME.2015.1016.123

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