Recent Advances on Gait Control Strategies for Hydraulic Quadruped Robot

Background: Hydraulic quadruped robots play an important role in many different fields, such as field investigation, seismic site search, mine transportation and planetary exploration. Gait planning is the core of the motion control of quadruped robots, which affects the obstacle surmounting ability and movement speed of the quadruped robot. The reasonable gait control method is very important to the stability of quadruped robots. Objective: To provide an overview of recent gait control strategies of the hydraulic quadruped robot and introduce their respective characteristics. Methods: This paper reviews various representative patents and papers related to hydraulic quadruped robot, especially focusing on the gait planning and the motion control algorithm of the hydraulic quadruped robot. Results: Current and future developments of the gait planning and control strategies of hydraulic quadruped robots are finally provided and discussed. Conclusion: Hydraulic quadruped robot has important practical significance. Further improvements are needed in the methods of gait planning. It is effective and reasonable to combine three kinds of motion control strategies for hydraulic quadruped robot, so that the quadruped robots are more intelligent and autonomous. Keywords: Central pattern generator, gait control, gait planning, hydraulic quadruped robot, intelligent control, spring-loaded inverted pendulum, virtual leg.