Design of a One Degree-of-Freedom Quadruped Robot Based on a Mechanical Link System: Cheetaroid-II

:One of the main factors that increase the weight of a mobile robot is an actuation system. The number of actuators is equivalent to the number of degrees of freedom in motion, and therefore the enough number of actuators should be used for realization of the desired motions of a quadruped robot, which creates a challenge in the minimization of the weight of the robot. In this paper, a five-bar linkage mechanism is proposed to emulate the locomotive motion of a leg of a quadruped robot with the reduced number of actuators. The parameters of the mechanical link system are selected by an optimization process such that the simulated link motion is close to the leg motions of the animal. The mechanisms proposed for a quadruped robot, called Cheetaroid-II, are verified by experimental results with a fabricated prototype.