A Quadruped Robot Powered With Pneumatic Actuators

This paper presents the design and control of a quadruped robot, which uses pneumatic actuators to power the eight joints in the robot. Leveraging the high performance of pneumatic actuators, the quadruped is able to provide the desired torque and power output while keeping the robot compact and lightweight. The ultimate purpose for the quadruped is to assist and accompany its human user in the daily life. As such, the overall design of the quadruped takes inspiration from human lower limbs, i.e., the quadruped can be imagined as the combination of two pairs of human lower limbs in opposite directions. The design details of the robot are presented, including the hip and knee joints and their actuation mechanisms. The control scheme is also presented, in which the robotic joints follow similar trajectories of their human biological counterparts. In the preliminary testing, the quadruped robot was able to walk continuously at a stable gait, demonstrating the effectiveness of the robot design and control approaches.Copyright © 2015 by ASME