IEEE/RSJ internationalWorkshop on Intelligent

Robots and Systems lROS '91.Nov. 3 4 . 1991.

Osaka,Japan. IEEE Cat. No.91TH0375-6

A STUDY O F TURNING GAIT CONTROL FOR QUADRUPED WALKING VEHICLE

Ma L i e

M a Peisun

Research I n n t i t u t e o f Robotics
Shanghai J i a o Tong U n i v e r s i t y
Shanghai 200030, P.R. China

ABSTRACT
This paper studies the realization of
turning gait contro1,taking a quadruped walking vehicle as the subject of the research.
Based on the analyses of previous works. a
kind of turning gait with the center of
gravity of the vehicle walking along mutiple
broken lines has been planned, which Is more
suitable for practical control than previous
methods. The process of the turning gait and
its feasibility are discussed in detail. The
turning gait presented in the paper is now
being implemented in the newly-develop&
omnidirectional quadruped walking
robot

JTUWH-11.

Turning gait is a more generalized gait.

While the circling centre is located at the
infinite distance, it is equivalent to 'crab
walking'; while the circling centre is located at the infinite distance along axis x and
axis y. then it is equivalent to forward.
backward and lateral walkings; while the
circling centre is located at the centre of
the vehicle, then the vehicle rotates along
itself. Like the control of any other gaitst
turning gait control not only needs coordinative movement of four legs, but also needs
the consideration of posture stability and
gait feasibility, and also should take speed
and evenness of the gait into account. So the
control of turning gait is more complicated.
Based on the discussion of turning
gait
planning and control 1 ing, this paper studies
the practical approach t o realize turning
walking of the quadruped walking vehicle,
taking recently-developed JTUWH-I1 model as
the subject of experiments.

INTRODUCTION

PREVIOUS WORKS

Planning and control I ing the gait of the

walking vehicle and developing its walking
ability is a very important proJect in the
development of the walking vehicle.
As to
the quadruped walking robot with twelve
degrees of freedom (DOFs),
the study of the
gait is more important. To exploit fully the
potential capability of motion flexibility
we have
for the quadruped walking robot 9
studies in sequence the gaits of straight
walking on the even ground. striding over
gull iesC11 and obstaolesC21 9 climbing over
slopesC31 and climbing on stairs[ 41 etc.
and have discussed a more generalized gait
called 'crab walking' in which the direotion
of motion takes a random angle with the torso
direction of the walking vehicle. Heanwhile,
irregular gaits which could adapt to rough
terrains automatically have also been paid
attention toC51. Apart from the above study
of the gaitss it is necessary to study a
more generalized gait in order to utilize
the high adaptable mobility of the vehicle.
This study is one of these efforts towards
this direction.

Some previous works have devoted to the

study of turning gait. HiroseCB],
who had
developed TITAN I 1 1 quadruped walking vehicle
model,
presented a circular gait around an
arbitrarily located turning center and discussed a standard circular gait. The standard
circular gait is the one which maximlzes the
speed of walking and the rotational angle in
a circular walk. On the basis of gait planning and analyzing, a circular walking experiment had been carried out on a TITAN 111
model *
H.X.Sun(1989)[77
also had done some investigations on turning walking. The approach
for turning gait planning presented by the
author was different from that of Hirose. The
planning method adopted by Hirose is to plan
first gaits of each leg within each kinematic
range of the coordinate system of the vehicle
,i.e. for each leg to rotate a certain angle
around the arbitrarily located turning centre
9
then to inspect the stability
of the
vehicle during the process of walking using
this kind of gait. The method proposed by Sun

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was first to give static stable gaits when

the vehicle is walking at the low spee&then
to determine whether there is any moment that
each leg walks out of its kinematic ranger if
there is none. then the gait is feasible.

The above approsohas mainly daal with

continuous turning around fixed centre along
a circle. The location of each leg is varying with time (i.e. each leg should be driven
So it is difficult
with variable motion).
to achieve in the real implementation. With
reference to C7L C81, and CBI,
the.paper
presents a turning gait with the centre of
gravity
moving along broken lines, and
Implements it
In the J?UWM-I1
model
oonstruoted by the author.
Fig.1 Kinematic Range of the Quadruped
Raking Vehicle

PLANNING OF TURNING GAIT WITH COG MOVING

ALONG BROKEN LINES

To enable the vehicle walking continuously

along the turnlng IWUSP the planned galt In
every period of walking should correspond to
turning walking style, i.e. walking forward
while turniag the body,
and the end status
of each gait period should ensure the walking
of next gait period.
Taking planary quadruped walking vehicle
model
shown in Fig.1 as the subject of
research, we study the way to realize turning
V Fig.1 denote legs in
walking. I ~ I I ~ I I I , I in
their rectangular kinematic ranges.
The posture variation of the vehicle in a
gait period could be expressed by moving
distanoe of COG ClC2 and turning angle
as
shown. in Fig. 2. To provide the vehicle with
the same initial state during connecting gait
periods so as to ensure the same turning
ability, the position of each leg in the coordinate system connected with the vehicle
should return back to the same relative
locations as that of the initial gait period.
TO facilite
controlling. ne suppose the COG
of the vehicle moving along broken lines C1G
and CC2. And striding sequence has also been
selected as (I)-(III)-(II)-(IV~.

I
Fig.2 Position and Posture for a Period
of the Turnlng Gal t

In order to ensure static stability of the

planned gait,
the looation of COG of the
vehicle when the second striding leg touches
the ground is quite important.
As long as
the COG point G is properly selected,
the
planned gait could be sure to succeed.
As shown in Fig.3. following the selected
striding sequence, C should be over line I 1
which passes F2(1) and F4(l) so as to keep
the vehicle stable when leg (111) is raised;
and C should be under line 12 which passes
Fl(2) and F3(2) so as to keep the vehicle
stable when leg(I1) is raised. To ensure the
sa- static stability in different periods of
the gait* let the distanoes between C and
line 11, line 12 equals t o distance between
C1 and line 11.
Then the coordinate of C

\ w

Y
I

I
Fig.3 Locus of COG of the Vehicle along
Broken Lines

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(GxpGy) could be obtained from gemotrical

relationship. Connect G with C1 and C2, then
we could obtain GI and G2 on line CCl which
have distances S perpendicular to line 11 ( s
is the least stable margin) and G3. CA on
line C20 which have distances s perpendicular
to line 12.
The broken line from Cl to C1.
G2, GI G3, G4 and C2 given above is the locus
of COG for the turning gait.

PROCESS OF TURNING GAIT AND ITS FEASIBILITY

ANALYSIS

t3 --? t4; In this sub-period, leg I1 is

first raised and then the vehicle is turned
with angle around its COG. If board effect of
circling is neglected, the coordinates of
four legs at time t4 are:

To faci1 iate control 1 ing of the gait, we

divide the turning period into seven subperiods,
delimited by time tO to t7. Now
let's discuss in detail.
tO --) tl :
In this sub-period, leg ( I )
strides from Fl(1) to Fl(2) and COG of the
vehicle ffictves froffiCI to G1. To ensure static
stability, G1 should locate within triangle
F2(1)F3(1)F4(1)
and be at a distance S or
more than s from line 11.
As the vehicle
moves in translation during this sub-period,
so as long as the positions of all legs at
initial time to and ending time tl are within
their kinematic ranges, the positions of all
legs during the whole period will not go out
of their kinematic range. The coordiantes of
four legs relative to coor4inate systeffi
xlclyl at time tl are:

t4 --> t5: Leg(I1) reaches F2(2) and COG

moves from to G3. C3 should be located
wthin triangle F1(2)F3(2)F4(2)
and be at a
dlstance of s from 12. The coordinates at
tiffiet5 are as follows:

t5 --> t 6 ; COG moves from C3 to C4 passing 12. C4 should be located within triangular F1(2)F2(2)F3(2)
and be at a distance
of s from 12. The corresponding coordinates
of four legs are:

. ( T1

cos r sin r
subscripts xi
I-sinr cos 7
, yi indicate that parameters are relative
to coordinate system of the vehicle xiciyi,
is the coordinate of COG
{x(ti)t Y(ti))
relative to coordinate system of the vehicle
at time ti-1.
where

1'

tl - - i t2:
The COG of the vehicle moves to
G2 passing I 1 under the suppoeting of four
legs. G2 is at a distance of s or more than
s from 11.
Correspondingly, the coordinates
of four legs relative to the coordinate
system at this time are:

i xi(t2)
yi (t2))

xr(t1) -(x(t2)
iyi ( t l ? ly(t2))
( i = 1 , 11, 111,

From the point of view of controling,

different turning angle
and COG moving
distance CIC2 are chosen to plan their gaits
and to deterffiine their feasibility. All the
feasible parameters are gathered to form a
set. Thus, in real control, we oould determine if the given initial turning parameters
are feasible according to this set.

(3)

1HPLEMENTATION OF TURNING CAIT CONTROL

IY)

1. A Brief Introduction to JTUWN-I1

Quadruped Wa I k ing Vehicle

t2 --> t3: Leg (111) mves from F3(1) to

F3(2) and the COG moves from C2 to C
The
coordinates of four legs at tine t3 are:

(4)

The developed JTUWM-I1 omnidirectional

quadruped walking vehicle (as shown in Fig.4)
adopts the pantograph leg mechanism. Each leg
has three DOFs and is driven independently by
DC servo motor. The control system adopts two
levels of control, i.e. computer control and
analogue circuit control. The parameters of
all DOFs are detected by potentiometer9 the

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Fig.(

JTUM-11 Quaduped Walking Vehicle

foot bottom of eaoh leg are mounted with

microswltches to deteot the ground status of
the swinging leg so as to detect the surroundings. Posture sensor is mounted on the
body of the vehicle so as to detect the
inclining angle of the vehicle. The limiting
speed of the developed walking vehicle under
the static gait is 1.7 km/h
(the walking
speed of single leg is 0.25 km/h) and could
realize omnidirectional walking.

Turning gait control is currently under

study.
We hope to improve the turing speed
and the turning angle of each period while
the walking stabi I ity is ensured at the same
time. Besides, CM; variation caused by the
moving of the leg and the swinging phenomenon
in the process'of walking should be overcome
in the real implementation,

2.

Implementation Approach to Turning Gait

Cont ro I

In the real control of the gait1 the

turning angle and COG moving distance (or
turning centert locus of turing curve) are
first be given to the system. The walking
vehicle wi 1 1 connect using circular curve and
divide it into several broken lines. In each
broken line, the vehicle will walk according
to the above discussed turning gait with COC
moving along broken lines,
then the whole
turning process will move continuously along
multiple lines.
The controlling software, which
is
programmed in the mixed C language and 8086
assembly language, consists of human-machine
interfaoe with menuss gait determination and
sequence cont r ol information processing three
parts.
In the turning gait control, the
feasibility the gait should first be determined according to the predefined set: in the
walking process, the vehicle could judge the
road using the microswitch at the foot bottom
of the swinging leg. Fig.5 shows the ground
statuses which JTUWN-I1 walking robot could
pass.
Presently the turning process could
be realized on the even ground and the ground
with concave and convex.

REFERENCES

1. P.S.Na. H.Yu, Gait Analysis during Gully

Striding for a Quadruped Walking Robot.
Robot, b . 5 , 1880, pp.30-34.
2. J.S.Chen. P.S.Ma,
JTUWH-If Quadruped
Walking Robot and its Controlling Software,
Software Development and Application, Vo1.3.
1891.
3. J.N. Pan, J.S. Chen, Research on Slope
Climbing for a Quadruped Walking Robot, Proc.
of 3rd. National Youth Conf. on Robots. p.262
, 1889.
4. Q. Wang, Stabi I ity Analysis and Control
of Stair Climbing Gait for a Quadruped Walking Robot, Proc. of 3rd National Youth Conf.
on Robots, p.537, 1988.
5. Q.W. He, P.S. Ha, A Study of Realtime
Adaptive Gait to Rough Terrains,
Proc. of
3rd. National Youth Conf. on Robots, p.224,

1889.
6. S.Hirosel H.Kikuchi and Y.

Umetani, The
Standard Circular Gait of a Quadruped Walking
Vehicle,
Advanced Robots, Vol. 1,
No.2,
pp. 143-164s 1886.
.
7. H.X. Shunt
Research on the Quadruped
Walking Robot. Ph.D dissertation, 1888.
8. J.C. Du,
Simulation Research on
Transition Gaits of the Quadruped Walklng
Robot, Shanghai Jiao Tong University, Naster
dissertation, 1881.2.

CONCLUSION

It has been shown from the experiment of

JTUWN-I1 walking robot that the presented
turning gait and controling strategy is
feas i bl e.

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