Design and development of a Quadruped robot

This project is premised upon the design and development of a quadrupedal robotic dog, which can perform locomotions like trotting. Greater maneuverability and accessibility are needed for various purposes, and a quadruped robot ensures maneuverability and accessibility to land terrains where human

Project Title

Design and development of a Quadruped robot

Project Area of Specialization

Electrical/Electronic Engineering

Project Summary

This project is premised upon the design and development of a quadrupedal robotic dog, which can perform locomotions like trotting. Greater maneuverability and accessibility are needed for various purposes, and a quadruped robot ensures maneuverability and accessibility to land terrains where human reach is difficult or dangerous. Keeping in view, the vast scope and multiple applications of a quadruped, this robotic dog is designed. The primary consideration while designing this quadruped has been to reduce the computational power and resources, hence reducing the cost of the product. This project discusses the design and development of the quadruped. The literature review of this project includes the literature from various similar projects like Boston Dynamics' Spot or MIT’s Cheetah. The working mechanism explains the gait analysis for the trotting of the quadruped including the calculations and computation involved in the movement. It includes forward and inverses kinematics calculations employing the DH method.

Project Objectives

1) Develop a low cost, working prototype of quadruped

2) Test the prototype for different industrial applications

3) Devise and implement a control system to perform the gait movement of the robot. 

Project Implementation Method

The control framework involves a series of triggers and actions in order to control the quadruped movements while maintaining the stability of the platform.  Quadruped movements such as walking and trotting go through multiple processes running in parallel having concurrency between them.  Firstly, all the sensors include navigational and positional sensors, proximity sensors, lidars, and the MPU6050 which has both a gyroscope and an accelerometer, using which we can measure rotation along all three axes, static acceleration due to gravity, as well as motion, shock, or dynamic acceleration due to vibration.  All these readings are being fetched by the micro-computer in an infinite loop.  This set of data coming from sensors helps in the localization of the quadruped robot.  Robot localization is the process of determining where a mobile robot is located with respect to its environment.  Localization is one of the most fundamental competencies required by a robot as the knowledge of the robot's own location is an essential precursor to making decisions about future actions. 
    
    The robot's location is sent as an input to the next process which is the mechanism design for the robot’s path planning.  We will be employing forward and inverse Kinematics equations for path planning.  The path planner evaluates the current localized data and controller’s goal to determine the commands for all the motor controllers and drivers for fulfilling the user goal and reaching the specified position.

Benefits of the Project

Mobile robots incorporate an extensive area of applications in various fields like space exploration, military application, industrial use, and many more. Hence, the design and development of a mobile robot are a crucial part of the above application. Among all the mobile robots, the quadrupedal robot is a legged and superior robot to wheeled and tracked robots due to its potential to explore all the terrain like humans and animals.

Legged robots, or walking machines, are designed for locomotion on rough terrain and require control of leg actuators to maintain balance, sensors to determine foot placement, and planning algorithms to determine the direction and speed of movement. The robot locomotion system is an essential characteristic of mobile design, and it depends not only on working space but also on technical measures like maneuverability, controllability, terrain condition, efficiency, and stability. However, in our project, we will talk about how quadrupeds can be more valuable and pragmatic to use robots as compared to others in diverse industries.

(a) Disaster Management
(b) Autonomous Exploration for NASA
(c) Tunnel Exploration by Construction Firms
(d) Electric Grids Surveillance

Technical Details of Final Deliverable

This project is premised upon the design and development of a quadrupedal robotic dog, which can perform locomotions like trotting.  Greater manoeuvrability and accessibility are needed for various purposes and a quadruped robot ensures and accessibility to land terrains where human reach is difficult or dangerous. Keeping in view, the wide scope and multiple applications of a quadruped this robotic dog is designed.  For designing the robot we have selected Jetson Nano as our microcontroller due to <reason>. For locomotion or gait movement we have used <specification of servos>. The body/casing of the robot is made using 3D printed parts due to <reason>. To control the robot, Robot Operating System (ROS) has been used due to <reason>.
 

 While designing this quadruped the main consideration has been to reduce the computational power and resources, hence reducing the cost of the product. This report discusses the design and development of the quadruped. The literature review includes the literature from various similar projects like Boston Dynamics' Spot or MIT’s Cheetah. The working mechanism explains the gait analysis for the trotting of the quadruped including the calculations and computation involved in the movement. It includes forward and inverse kinematics calculations using the DH method. 

Final Deliverable of the Project

Hardware System

Core Industry

Transportation

Other Industries

IT , Manufacturing , Security

Core Technology

Robotics

Other Technologies

Internet of Things (IoT), Augmented & Virtual Reality, Clean Tech

Sustainable Development Goals

Good Health and Well-Being for People, Decent Work and Economic Growth, Industry, Innovation and Infrastructure, Responsible Consumption and Production, Life on Land, Partnerships to achieve the Goal

Required Resources

If you need this project, please contact me on contact@adikhanofficial.com