An Overview of Legged Robots

The objective of this paper is to present the evolution and the state-of-theart in the area of legged locomotion systems. In a first phase different possibilities for mobile robots are discussed, namely the case of artificial legged locomotion systems, while emphasizing their advantages and limitations. In a second phase an historical overview of the evolution of these systems is presented, bearing in mind several particular cases often considered as milestones on the technological and scientific progress. After this historical timeline, some of the present day systems are examined and their performance is analyzed. In a third phase are pointed out the major areas for research and development that are presently being followed in the construction of legged robots. Finally, some of the problems still unsolved, that remain defying robotics research, are also addressed.N/

Robots as Powerful Allies for the Study of Embodied Cognition from the Bottom Up

A large body of compelling evidence has been accumulated demonstrating that embodiment – the agent’s physical setup, including its shape, materials, sensors and actuators – is constitutive for any form of cognition and as a consequence, models of cognition need to be embodied. In contrast to methods from empirical sciences to study cognition, robots can be freely manipulated and virtually all key variables of their embodiment and control programs can be systematically varied. As such, they provide an extremely powerful tool of investigation. We present a robotic bottom-up or developmental approach, focusing on three stages: (a) low-level behaviors like walking and reflexes, (b) learning regularities in sensorimotor spaces, and (c) human-like cognition. We also show that robotic based research is not only a productive path to deepening our understanding of cognition, but that robots can strongly benefit from human-like cognition in order to become more autonomous, robust, resilient, and safe

Living and Interacting with Robots: Engaging Users in the Development of a Mobile Robot

Mobile robots such as Aldebaran’s humanoid Pepper currently find their way into society. Many research projects already try to match humanoid robots with humans by letting them assist, e.g., in geriatric care or simply for purposes of keeping company or entertainment. However, many of these projects deal with acceptance issues that come with a new type of interaction between humans and robots. These issues partly originate from different types of robot locomotion, limited human-like behaviour as well as limited functionalities in general. At the same time, animal-type robots—quadrupeds such as Boston Dynamic’s WildCat—and underactuated robots are on the rise and present social scientists with new challenges such as the concept of uncanny valley. The possible positive aspects of the unusual cooperations and interactions, however, are mostly pushed into the background. This paper describes an approach of a project at a research institution in Germany that aims at developing a setting of human–robot-interaction and collaboration that engages the designated users in the whole process

Design of a Biomimetic Mechanical Leg and Accompanying Sensor System for Terrain Detection

Autonomous robots are useful in a wide range of applications. However, finding a balance between speed and stability in an autonomous robot can be difficult. The goal of this project was to design a biomimetically-inspired robotic leg and accompanying sensor system for detecting terrain; the mechanical leg and sensor system designs in combination are intended to enable a quadruped robot to move quickly while maintaining its stability. In order to accomplish this goal, a leg was designed based on the leg of a cheetah and the team performed a variety of mechanical analyses on it. Additionally, the output from a force sensor landing on hard and muddy surfaces was collected and algorithms for determining which of the two surfaces the robot was walking on were developed

Effect of Reference Height Control System on CPG Networks for Quadruped Hopping Robot

In this paper, the collaboration of CPG networks with the feedback control system which are composed with the maximum hopping height detector and the Proportional Integral (PI) controller as an engineering application for the CPG network is proposed with the developed control systems. By adding the feedback loop through the feedback controller, the developed quadruped hopping robot not only can generate the continuous hopping performances but also can control the desired hopping height. As the result, the effectiveness of CPG networks to keep the stability of the developed quadruped hopping robot besides of confirming the validity of using reference height control system to generate hopping capability at different reference height, respectively

Effect of Reference Height Control System on CPG Networks for Quadruped Hopping Robot

In this paper, the collaboration of CPG networks with the feedback control system which are composed with the maximum hopping height detector and the Proportional Integral (PI) controller as an engineering application for the CPG network is proposed with the developed control systems. By adding the feedback loop through the feedback controller, the developed quadruped hopping robot not only can generate the continuous hopping performances but also can control the desired hopping height. As the result, the effectiveness of CPG networks to keep the stability of the developed quadruped hopping robot besides of confirming the validity of using reference height control system to generate hopping capability at different reference height, respectively