Locomotion Stabilization with Transition between Biped and Quadruped Walk based on Recognition of Slope

The applicative field of activities of robots who have only one locomotion strategy is limited. As means of enhancing the mobile range, it is necessary to have various locomotion modes. Therefore, we focus on dynamic transitions between several kinds of locomotion modes adapting to environmental changes. In this paper, we aim to realize stable locomotion along some unknown test courses consisting of flat and slope with transition between biped and quadruped walks. To achieve this transition, we propose a method to recognize a slope, a design of the transition motion, and a technique for modifying the trajectories of quadruped walk to move between flat and slope. By experiments, we verify that the proposed methods can successfully be applied to both upslope and downslope cases.