Skip to main content

Mechanical Design of an Agile Quadruped Robot

  • Conference paper
  • First Online:
European Robotics Forum 2024 (ERF 2024)

Part of the book series: Springer Proceedings in Advanced Robotics ((SPAR,volume 32))

Included in the following conference series:

  • 64 Accesses

Abstract

Agile quadrupedal robotic platforms have become a commercial reality and are widespread in research laboratories. Nevertheless, the freedom to experiment with high performance on these commercial devices is impaired by restrictions to access and customise the low-level layers of their hardware and software. In this work, we present the design of Leon, an agile quadruped robot based on commercial components which we minimally customise. Following this approach, we benefit from the availability of partially integrated components on the market, but commercial restrictions do not impair the performance of the robot.

The robot cells are designed in a manner that only a few parts are required and can be fabricated without complex machining. This paper details the design and the strength analysis of the critical parts.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this chapter

Subscribe and save

Springer+ Basic
$34.99 /Month
  • Get 10 units per month
  • Download Article/Chapter or eBook
  • 1 Unit = 1 Article or 1 Chapter
  • Cancel anytime
Subscribe now

Buy Now

Chapter
USD 29.95
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Available as PDF
  • Read on any device
  • Instant download
  • Own it forever

Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout

Purchases are for personal use only

Institutional subscriptions

References

  1. Spenko, M., Buerger, S., Iagnemma, K.: The DARPA robotics challenge finals: humanoid robots to the rescue, Springer Tracts in Advanced Robotics, vol. 121 (2018)

    Google Scholar 

  2. Rouček, T., et al.: DARPA subterranean challenge: multi-robotic exploration of underground environments. In: Modelling and Simulation for Autonomous Systems, pp. 274–290. Springer, 2020

    Google Scholar 

  3. Kashiri, N., et al.: Centauro: a hybrid locomotion and high power resilient manipulation platform. IEEE Robot. Autom. Lett. 4(2), 1595–1602 (2019)

    Article  MATH  Google Scholar 

  4. Raibert, M., Blankespoor, K., Nelson, G., Playter, R.: BigDog, the Rough-terrain quaduped robot. IFAC Proc. Vol. 41(2), 10822–10825 (2008)

    Article  Google Scholar 

  5. Semini, C., Tsagarakis, N.G., Guglielmino, E., Focchi, M., Cannella, F., Caldwell, D.G.: Design of HyQ - a hydraulically and electrically actuated quadruped robot. Proc. Inst. Mech. Eng. Part I: J. Syst. Control Eng. 225(6), 831–849 (2011)

    MATH  Google Scholar 

  6. Hutter, M., et al.: ANYmal - a highly mobile and dynamic quadrupedal robot. In: 2016 IEEE/RSJ International Conference on Intelligent Robots and Systems (IROS), pp. 38–44. IEEE (2016)

    Google Scholar 

  7. Katz, B., Di Carlo, J., Kim, S.: Mini cheetah: a platform for pushing the limits of dynamic quadruped control. In: 2019 International Conference on Robotics and Automation, pp. 6295–6301. IEEE (2019)

    Google Scholar 

  8. Wensing, P.M., Wang, A., Seok, S., Otten, D., Lang, J., Kim, S.: Proprioceptive actuator design in the MIT cheetah: impact mitigation and high-bandwidth physical interaction for dynamic legged robots. IEEE Trans. Rob. 33(3), 509–522 (2017)

    Article  Google Scholar 

  9. Katz, B.: A low cost modular actuator for dynamic robots. PhD thesis, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, 2018

    Google Scholar 

  10. Singh, A., Kashiri, N., Tsagarakis, N.: Design of a quasi-direct-drive actuator for dynamic motions. In: Multidisciplinary Digital Publishing Institute Proceedings, vol. 64, p. 11 (2020)

    Google Scholar 

  11. Kashiri, N., et al.: An overview on principles for energy efficient robot locomotion. Front. Robot. AI 5, 129 (2018)

    Article  MATH  Google Scholar 

  12. Kashiri, N., Ajoudani, A., Caldwell, D.G., Tsagarakis, N.G.: Evaluation of hip kinematics influence on the performance of a quadrupedal robot leg. In: ICINCO, vol. 1, pp. 205–212 (2016)

    Google Scholar 

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

Authors

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Edoardo Del Bianco .

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

Copyright information

© 2024 The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG

About this paper

Check for updates. Verify currency and authenticity via CrossMark

Cite this paper

Del Bianco, E., Kashiri, N., Roveri, M., Tsagarakis, N.G. (2024). Mechanical Design of an Agile Quadruped Robot. In: Secchi, C., Marconi, L. (eds) European Robotics Forum 2024. ERF 2024. Springer Proceedings in Advanced Robotics, vol 32. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-76424-0_11

Download citation

Publish with us

Policies and ethics