Figure - available from: ROBOMECH Journal
This content is subject to copyright. Terms and conditions apply.
Source publication
In this paper, we discuss development of a sprawling-type quadruped robot named TITAN-XIII which is capable of high speed and energy efficient walking. We consider a sprawling-type quadruped robot is practical, because of its high stability which comes from the large supporting leg polygon and the low center of gravity. However in previous research...
Similar publications
To do a full use of reliable exploiting the kinetics of roller cutter
picks and intermaxillary tool legs we have conducted and deepened and
thought territorial research. During this research work the followings
were dissolved.
Mornel Charadrius morinellus był do niedawna gatunkiem rzadko stwierdzanym w Polsce. W ostatnich latach jednak znacznie zwiększyła się liczba jego obserwacji w skali całego kraju (Tomiałojć, Stawarczyk 2003; Komisja Faunistyczna 2001-2013). Szczególnie interesujący jest schemat występowania tego gatunku w Karpatach, będących jedynym regionem w nasz...
Citations
... This includes adjustments such as keeping the robot's body closer to the surface it is climbing. [5,26], REST [27], ROMHEX [28], Hexaquad [29], SCALER [18], ROBOCLIMBER [16], MRWALLSPECT-II [30], LEMUR [31], Magneto [32], RVC [33], ASV [34], MECANT I [22], Ambler [15], H. Montes hexapod [17], LAURON [8], RIMHO II [35], OSCAR [36], Oncilla [19], TITAN [37], PV-II [21], ANYmal [9], StarlETH [38], Spot [39], Nimble limbs [40]. ...
Robotic control is a fundamental part of autonomous robots. Modular legged and climbing robots are complex machines made up of a variety of subsystems, ranging from a single robot with simple legs to a complex system composed of multiple legs (or modules) with computing power and sensitivity. Their complexity, which is increased by the fact of needing elements for climbing, makes a correct structure crucial to achieve a complete, robust, and versatile system during its operation. Control architectures for legged robots are distinguished from other software architectures because of the special needs of these systems. In this paper, we present an original classification of modular legged and climbing robots, a comprehensive review of the most important control architectures in robotics, focusing on the control of modular legged and climbing robots, and a comparison of their features. The control architecture comparison aims to provide the analytical tools necessary to make informed decisions tailored to the specific needs of your robotic applications. This article includes a review and classification of modular legged and climbing robots, breaking down each category separately.
... On the other hand, the sprawling architecture is closer to the ground with better stability than the other, but the energy efficiency is affected. A robot that uses this architecture is TITAN-XIII [5]. The present proposal includes the two architectures in an integrated way, obtaining the best attributes of both and achieving walking like a mammal or sprawling according to the terrain and robot application. ...
Currently, terrestrial robots have accelerated growth in their use due to the various applications they can solve. Robots with legs are classified by the number of limbs they use. The most used in the industry are quadruped robots, with mammalian and extended walking configurations. The proposal research presents the development of a novel quadruped robot with a hybrid walking operation. In other words, it allows the reconfiguration of the quadruped robot automatically into mammalian or extended mode according to the terrain conditions. Experimental tests were carried out to measure the robot performance for each configuration. The mammalian reached speeds of 12.52cm/s, 89% faster than the extended configuration. On the other hand, in tilt tests, the extended can walk on surfaces inclined up to 18.2°, with 28% more inclination than the mammalian configuration. Finally, the quadruped robot presented allows to be exploited the advantages of mammalian and extended walking depending on the required operating conditions, increasing the possibility of use in different applications.
... The earliest walking mechanism was developed by Chebyshev, where rotational motion was converted to translation motion with constant velocity utilizing a four-bar mechanism [2]. Later on, some other revolutionary quadrupeds, such as The California Horse, The Big Muskie [15], KUMO [7], TITAN [11] and SCOUT series of quadrupeds [3] have been developed. ...
... On the other hand, limitations such as low speed, complex mechanical structure, heavy weight, and high friction during interaction restrict the wide use of tracked robots. The legged robots, on the contrary, can adapt to irregular surfaces by adjusting the leg configuration for uneven terrains [16], in terms of less terrain deformation [17] and higher fault tolerance by virtue [19]; (b) sprawling-type quadruped robot TITAN-XIII [20]; (c) HELIOS IX tracked robot [21]; (d) hybrid tracked-wheeled mobile robot [22]; (e) hexapod tracked mobile robot [23]; (f) wheel-legged hexapod robot [24]; and (g) leg-wheel-track hybrid Azimuth robot [25] Stability problem due to fewer legs and more actuators used to keep the robot stable and thus, consume more power of a redundant number of legs [18]. However, legged robots are subjected to complex structural design, require numerous actuators, and need complex control systems with high power consumption requirements [13,16]. ...
Wheeled field robots have promising widespread civil and military applications in off-road conditions. The complex off-road working conditions pose substantial challenges in applying field robots, especially the newly emerged fully autonomous “smart” mobile ground robots without human intervention. Two key issues arise for a successful navigation, namely geometrical and non-geometrical obstacles. So far, most of the research on off-road mobile robots has focused on approaches to avoid geometrical obstacles by ignoring the influence of wheel slippage on the robot mobility. On the other hand, wheel slippage plays a key role in the performance of off-road mobile robots and must be addressed. The purpose of this paper is to summarize the methods in the study on the wheel slippage estimation and modeling of off-road mobile robots, along with the control and sensing technology, and report the state-of-the-art in this research field. Multiple approaches: proprioceptive-sensor-based, exteroceptive-sensor-based, model-based slippage estimation and compensation methods will be discussed. In addition, this paper also investigates the new research trend of developing machine learning methods to predict and compensate for the wheel slippage under complex working conditions. Current technical challenges and room for further research improvement are also generalized. This paper will help researchers new in this field to be familiar with the wheel slippage modeling, control and sensing technology, and inspire for the next-generation robot design that can help address the wheel slippage issues.
... As shown in Figure 4, the COT value of MIARF can be lower than that of many amphibious robots and even some advanced unimodal robots. 24,28,[64][65][66][67][68][69][70][71][72][73][74][75][76][77] Therefore, compared with other animals and robots, the energy efficiency of MIARF situates in an excellent position. The terrestrial propulsive efficiency of MIARF outperforms most other amphibious robots. ...
Amphibious robots face challenges in efficiently combining locomotion strategies and coordinating propulsive mechanisms, hindering their locomotion performance similar to amphibian animals. This study presents the design and implementation of an agile amphibious robot inspired by the mudskipper, a highly adaptive amphibian. This innovative robot employs fish-like locomotion underwater and legged locomotion on land to achieve high propulsion efficiency. Furthermore, the maneuverability of the robot is significantly enhanced through the coordination of the pectoral and caudal fins. Our experimental results demonstrate that the minimum cost of transport for terrestrial and aquatic locomotion is 4.56 and 2.02, respectively, outperforming many existing amphibious and unimodal robots. In addition, the robot’s terrestrial and aquatic turning speeds improved by 50.1% and 24.4%, respectively, owing to the effective coordination of the pectoral and caudal fins. Our amphibious robot has great potential for diverse applications and provides valuable insights for the development of advanced and versatile robotic systems.
... Therefore, the existing quadruped robots have adopted different configurations. The TITAN robot [28] uses a sprawling-type configuration, while the majority of reported quadruped robots belong to a mammaltype configuration. For example, LittleDog [10] and Anymal [15] adopt an inward-standing configuration, while the MIT Cheetah [18] uses a backward-standing configuration. ...
Unmanned robotic systems are expected to liberate people from heavy, monotonous, and dangerous work. However, it is still difficult for robots to work in complicated environments and handle diverse tasks. To this end, a robotic system with four legs, four wheels, and a reconfigurable arm is designed. Special attention has been given to making the robot compact, agile, and versatile. Firstly, by using separate wheels and legs, it removes the coupling in the traditional wheeled–legged system and guarantees highly efficient locomotion in both the wheeled and legged modes. Secondly, a leg–arm reconfiguration design is adopted to extend the manipulation capability of the system, which not only reduces the total weight but also allows for dexterous manipulation and multi‐limb cooperation. Thirdly, a multi‐task control strategy based on variable configurations is proposed for the system, which greatly enhances the adaptability of the robot to complicated environments. Experimental results are given, which validate the effectiveness of the system in mobility and operation capability.
... The ankle is composed of a ball joint and a spring, which will be passively rotated as the foot contacts an uneven terrain. The joints of the leg adopt a hinged structure [22,23] and three steering gears connected via specific shapes of brackets [24,25] that form three degrees of freedom, as shown in Figure 2c. The upper steering gear is to produce forward motion by the leg. ...
To increase the knowledge and exploit new resources beyond the Earth, planetary surface exploration on the Moon or Mars attracts significant attention around the globe. Due to the fact that these planetary surfaces are widely covered by soil-like materials, various structures of planetary rovers have been proposed to adapt to the terrains. Nonetheless, the traditional rover structures, such as wheeled and leg-wheeled, have shown limitations in moving on granular soils. To improve the mobility, this paper proposes a multi-toe quadruped robot inspired by the desert chameleon animal. The key features are that each bionic foot possesses four toes to stabilize them on granular materials. Moreover, a bionic flexible spine is designed to coordinate with walking and turning gaits and to make the robot approach an animal-like mobility. To assess the robot performances, kinematics analysis and analytical modeling of foot, leg, and spine movements are carried out. The results demonstrate that this robot can effectively walk and turn in accordance with the adopted gaits. Finally, field tests of moving over sands have been conducted. It shows that the robot can stably walk and turn on sands, which indicates that it is adaptable to planetary granular terrains.
... The driving cables of the capstan drives are tightened by the bolt, which can be rapidly tensioned during the motion process. Kitano et al. [20] designed the TITAN-XIII robot with four cable-driven legs, and proposed the co-axial tensioner shaft to adjust the tension of the driving cables. In summary, an effective tensioning mechanism is essential to ensure the performance of the cable-driven manipulator ...
... By replacing δ(Δl) in (20) with (17), the stiffness of the 1-DOF joint can be derived as: ...
The lightweight design of robots is an important factor in the field of human-robot interaction. Thus, a lightweight 7-DOF cable-driven manipulator is proposed and manufactured, including a shoulder joint with 3-DOF, an elbow joint with 1-DOF, and a wrist joint with 3-DOF. The offset design of the shoulder joint increases the workspace and facilitates the electrical wiring of the manipulator. To solve the cable relaxation problem of the long-term operation of the manipulator, novel cable tensioning mechanisms are proposed based on the characteristics of shoulder, elbow, and wrist joints, which enable rapid tensioning during the motion process. Moreover, forward/inverse kinematic model are established based on virtual coupling joints to analysis the performance of the manipulator. Both the tensile tests of the cables and the stiffness experiments of the wrist and elbow joints are carried out The experimental results show that the maximum stiffness values of the elbow joint and the wrist joint are 1066.3 N
$\cdot$
m/rad and 319.8 N
$\cdot$
m/rad respectively, which can be comparable to the human arm.
... TITAN-XIII is one of the few sprawling robots that focuses on energy efficient locomotion [29]. Nevertheless, TITAN-XIII pales in comparison to mammal-type robots. ...
... Nevertheless, TITAN-XIII pales in comparison to mammal-type robots. It has a cost of transport (CoT) of 1.76 and a runtime of only 20 min, which translates to an operating range of just over 1.5 km [29]. ANYmal is a mammal-type electric quadruped with a CoT of 1.2 and a range of more than 10 km [30]. ...
... While skating with caster wheels.9 Reported in the TITAN-XIII paper[29]. ...
Last mile is known as the last leg of the delivery process, which is the most expensive and time-consuming part per kilometer. The most common last mile deliveries are postal packages, groceries and take away meals. Recently, there has been a growing interest and implementation of sidewalk autonomous delivery robots. These robots travel roughly at the speed of pedestrians (6 km/h). A high-speed (15 km/h) delivery robot design is proposed for reducing the time, energy and carbon footprint of deliveries. The preliminary design of the delivery robot powertrain is based on worst-case scenario analysis and Monte Carlo simulations with synthetic driving cycles. Synthetic driving cycles were used because there are no open data available of delivery robots. Thus, the procedure presented in this paper is a general approach for cases where there is no precedent application and/or no data are available. The synthetic driving cycles are based on start and end location of food-delivery services in Helsinki, Finland. Based on the simulations, the crucial factors contributing to energy demand and its variation were analyzed. Carbon footprint of the delivered package over distance of the design is compared to existing wheeled delivery robots and quadrupeds. The motivation of the work is that showcasing the energy savings of higher speed aids government officials in their decision-making regarding delivery robot regulations. As a result of the simulations, higher operation speed lowered the energy consumption by over 40%.
... Text S1 to S5 Figs. S1 to S14 Tables S1 to S5 Movies S1 to S7 References (127)(128)(129)(130)(131)(132)(133) ...
Designers of legged robots are challenged with creating mechanisms that allow energy-efficient locomotion with robust and minimalistic control. Sources of high energy costs in legged robots include the rapid loading and high forces required to support the robot’s mass during stance and the rapid cycling of the leg’s state between stance and swing phases. Here, we demonstrate an avian-inspired robot leg design, BirdBot, that challenges the reliance on rapid feedback control for joint coordination and replaces active control with intrinsic, mechanical coupling, reminiscent of a self-engaging and disengaging clutch. A spring tendon network rapidly switches the leg’s slack segments into a loadable state at touchdown, distributes load among joints, enables rapid disengagement at toe-off through elastically stored energy, and coordinates swing leg flexion. A bistable joint mediates the spring tendon network’s disengagement at the end of stance, powered by stance phase leg angle progression. We show reduced knee-flexing torque to a 10th of what is required for a nonclutching, parallel-elastic leg design with the same kinematics, whereas spring-based compliance extends the leg in stance phase. These mechanisms enable bipedal locomotion with four robot actuators under feedforward control, with high energy efficiency. The robot offers a physical model demonstration of an avian-inspired, multiarticular elastic coupling mechanism that can achieve self-stable, robust, and economic legged locomotion with simple control and no sensory feedback. The proposed design is scalable, allowing the design of large legged robots. BirdBot demonstrates a mechanism for self-engaging and disengaging parallel elastic legs that are contact-triggered by the foot’s own lever-arm action.
Free-access referral link at
https://dlg.is.mpg.de/publications/bb01
CAD files and data for non commercial use available at
https://edmond.mpdl.mpg.de/dataset.xhtml?persistentId=doi:10.17617/3.ETFG41
