title: Trotting, pacing and bounding by a quadruped robot.
abstract: This paper explores the quadruped running gaits that use the legs in pairs: the trot (diagonal pairs), the pace (lateral pairs), and the bound (front and rear pairs). Rather than study these gaits in quadruped animals, we studied them in a quadruped robot. We found that each of the gaits that use the legs in pairs can be transformed into a common underlying gait, a virtual biped gait. Once transformed, a single set of control algorithms produce all three gaits, with modest parameter variations between them. The control algorithms manipulated rebound height, running speed, and body attitude, while a low-level mechanism coordinated the behavior of the legs in each pair. The approach was tested with laboratory experiments on a four-legged robot. Data are presented that show the details of the running motion for the three gaits and for transitions from one gait to another.
authors.affiliation: Artificial Intelligence Laboratory, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge 02139.
authors.forename: M H
authors.initials: MH
authors.lastname: Raibert
mesh_terms: D000465:Algorithms; D000818:Animals; D005684:Gait / Q000502:physiology*; D008954:Models, Biological; D012371:Robotics