Biorobotics Laboratory BioRob

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Semester project in the spring semester 2008: Development and Test of a Model for the Cheetah Robot

Goals

This project builds upon Simon Rutishauser's, to be found here, where he constructed the quadruped compliant robot Cheetah. It aims at first creating a realistic model of the robot in the Webots modeling software and then to implement a pre-existing CPG on it to run parameter searches for different gaits.

The model

The leg mechanism

The three-segment legs only have 2 degrees of freedom due to a pantograph mechanism: the special construction makes the first and third leg segment stay parallel at all times. The right part of the picture shows the leg in different states of compression

Movies of the experiments

The following correspond to the optimal parameter settings found during experiments done for the project. The files ending with "Naive" were results of the first set of parameters with very strong springs and the default friction parameter for the feet. The files ending with "Friction" were created with a second set of experiments with softer springs and an infinite friction between the feet and the ground.

Report

The report of the project