Trotting Gait Planning and Modeling of a Quadruped Robot

Quadruped robots are generally more stable and agile than biped robots. In this paper, a model of a quadruped robot similar to Mini-Cheetah has been presented and investigated in terms of dynamic gait planning. First, the model has graphically been designed by SolidWorks which is composed of four legs with twelve rotational joints (three joints for each leg). Then, the robot has been dynamically modeled in ADAMS, by introducing appropriate constraints and contacts. An intuitive graphical kinematic analysis has been conducted and a proper dynamically stable gait for the robot locomotion, i.e. trotting gait, has been planned. To extend and parameterize the gait study, the robot has further been simulated by linking ADAMS and MATLAB. The results showed the feasibility and effectiveness of the approach for quadruped gait planning and simulation.