Attitude Adjustment of a Quadruped Robot in the Air

When the moments of climbing robots, jumping robots, and gliding robots extend to the air, they should reorient themselves to minimize the damage during a fall. Based on imitating a falling cat, robot can reorientate about one axis without external force. In this paper, an extended attitude adjustment method for quadruped robots is presented to achieve three degrees of freedom attitude adjustment with the movement of four robotic limbs. A mathematical model of a falling robot is established based on the multi-rigid-body unrooted tree system. The response of the prototype’s azimuth to the input of the cylindrical hinges is analyzed. A 3D model prototype was designed in SolidWorks and simulation experiments were carried out in ADAMS. Prototype were manufactured with a 3D printer, to validate the attitude adjustment method. The simulation and experimental results showed that the main body of the prototype was able to rotate respectively 89 degrees in the X-axis, 89 degrees in Y-axis, and 49 degrees in Z-axis in a movement cycle of the robotic limbs.