Teleoperation system for multiple robots with HAM: free gait for following motion of quadruped robots

A purpose of our research is to realize a human adaptive teleoperation system for cooperative conveyance tasks by multiple robots. For such multiple robots operation task, an operator generally can operate only a few points and the robots have to follow the points with suitable formations. Therefore, the robot control scheme is required not only maneuverable but also to have a following ability. However, some constraints bring about difficulties for the motion. Especially, four constraints, which are stability, workspace constraint, obstacle avoidance, and a following to reference points with an interval, are critical. A lot of researchers have proposed the flexible gait patterns, called free gait, to improve the internal quadruped robot problems as stability and workspace constraints. However, few researchers have focused on following motion. Consequently, we propose a free gait pattern, which improves the conventional internal robot problems, and additionally has a following function by an artificial potential field approach. This paper addresses a gait pattern design with the following feature and experiments to verify it.