The MIT Cheetah, an Electrically-Powered Quadrupedal Robot for High-speed Running

IntroductionQuadrupedalism, pervasive in mammals, is a promising mode of locomotion for robotics applications.Recently, the quadrupedal robots have demonstrated remarkable performances.Boston Dynamics demonstrated robust gait control implemented in BigDog [1], and fast locomotion in Cheetah [2].Utilizing the wide stance of the quadrupedal morphology, StarlETH [3] and HyQ [4] also showed robust walking in rough terrains.These achievements suggested that quadrupedal robots could be a widely used for future robotic applications such as service, disaster response, surveillance, and search-and-rescue operations.Despite recent advancements in quadrupedal robots, designing actuation system for dynamic locomotion remains as a difficult challenge.The robots that employ hydraulic system can generate high force, but generate much heat and noise, which result in low locomotion efficiency.Compared with the hydraulically powered robots, the robots that employ electrical actuators appear to be less powerful and demonstrate less dynamic locomotion.We initiated the MIT Cheetah project to develop an efficient, high-speed quadrupedal robot taking inspiration from the design principles learned from biological runners.Currently, few robots powered by electric motors were capable of running or highly dynamic behaviors.The main purpose of the MIT Cheetah project is to investigate alternative actuation design and develop core technologies for highly dynamic legged locomotion.