Combining series elastic actuation and magneto-rheological damping for the control of agile locomotion

All-terrain robot locomotion is an active topic of research. Search and rescue maneuvers and exploratory missions could benefit from robots with the abilities of real animals. However, technological barriers exist to ultimately achieving the actuation system, which is able to meet the exigent requirements of these robots. This paper describes the locomotion control of a leg prototype, designed and developed to make a quadruped walk dynamically while exhibiting compliant interaction with the environment. The actuation system of the leg is based on the hybrid use of series elasticity and magneto-rheological Keywordsdampers, which provide variable compliance for natural-looking motion and improved interaction with Agile legged robots t n e SdThe locomotion control architecture has been proposed to exploit natural leg dynamics in Large power-to-weight actuators order to improve energy efficiency. Results show that the controller achieves a significant reduction in Hybrid actuators for robotics energy consumption during the leg swing phase thanks to the exploitation of inherent leg dynamics. Gait control Added to this, experiments with the real leg prototype show that the combined use of series elasticity Compliance control and magneto-rheological damping at the knee provide a 20 % reduction in the energy wasted in braking the knee during its extension in the leg stance phase.