Design, Simulation and Fabrication of Quadrupedal Robot Integrated using Five-Jointed Legs with Suspension Spring

Abstract

In this paper, a complete description of the design process for a four-legged locomotion robot or also known as quadrupedal robot will be presented. The quadrupedal robot is purposely designed as the Messenger Robot 2 (MR2) to participate in Robocon 2019. To overcome the challenges in Robocon 2019, each leg of the quadrupedal robot is designed with five joints integrated with a compression spring at the foot for suspension. The quadrupedal robot consists of a total sixteen standard servomotors where groups of four servos actuate leg joints of the quadrupedal robot. Furthermore, there are an additional three servomotors, where one servomotor is a joint at each front leg to allow the robot to rotate its orientation, and the last servo for an extension mechanism system. Finally, the simulation and experimental results demonstrated that the quadrupedal robot achieves a stable walking motion with the fastest locomotion of two legs contacting the ground at half walking cycle. In the future, the legged mechanism of the quadrupedal robot will be further improved and optimized toward the generalization of the dynamic legged locomotion in other challenging terrains.