Involute-arc-leg for Multi-legged Robot: High Stability and Low Energy Consumption

A novel involute-arc-leg (IAL) which could be applied to multi-legged robots has been presented in this paper. The IAL is composed of the involute-segment and arc-segment. Compared with the common curved leg, the IAL has two advantages: Firstly, the centroid fluctuation and body capsizing can be reduced to improve motion stability; secondly, the torque can be decreased to reduce the energy consumption. With these characteristics, the robot can achieve more efficient and stable motion. Multi-legged robots which are useful for carrying curved legs have been developed, and the stability and energy consumption of the robot with different curved legs have been compared. As verified by experiments, the centroid fluctuation and attitude angle of Quadruped Robot can be reduced to zero with IAL, comparing to arc-legs, in which the energy consumption in standing and walking phase is decreased by 14.1% and 28.71%, respectively. The results prove that the motion stability and energy efficiency of robot can be improved with the curved leg design method based on splicing involute and arc, which provides a useful reference for the design of other robots.