4-Legged Mechanism of Realizing Dynamic Running. - Comparison of Movement Performance by Change of Locomotion Pattern

This paper discusses the possibility to realize both of walking and running by a single robot, which is made by the combination mechanism of linkages and actuators. This linkage mechanism have actuators below the number of joint, therefore it enables to reduce the weight of the robot. This study aims at realizing the 4-legged locomotion by controlling the phase to manipulate the legs made by linkage mechanism. This paper firstly shows the similarity of walking and running of 4-legged animal, and proposes the way of realizing the both actions by the change of phase of motion. In order to design the leg mechanism with effective linkage systems, the kinematics simulator was developed and the performance of the prototype was tested