Path tracking based on closed-loop control for a quadruped robot in a cluttered environment

In this paper, the path tracking control is studied for a quadruped robot, named TITAN-VIII, walking in a cluttered environment. A simple and efficient algorithm of path planning is proposed, which is characterized by finding turning-point in the walking environment for the robot. The generalized gait algorithm based on the static stability is presented for the continuous and omnidirectional crawl of the robot. Especially, the real-time robot localization in the walking environment, which is the key to the settlement of the path tracking control, is realized by dead-reckoning for the quadruped robot. Based on the above work, we design the closed-loop control architecture so that the robot is able to track the desired path in an obstacle-strewn environment. The reliability and effectiveness of the proposed method is demonstrated through the experimental results.