Original Article

Proc IMechE Part C:

J Mechanical Engineering Science
A 3D stable trot of a quadruped robot 0(0) 1–19
! IMechE 2015

over uneven terrains Reprints and permissions:

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DOI: 10.1177/0954406215617492
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Mahdi Khorram and S Ali A Moosavian

Abstract
Legged robots have superior advantages rather than wheeled robots for moving over uneven terrains in the presence of
various obstacles. The design of an appropriate path for the main body and legs is an important issue for such robots
especially on the uneven terrains. In this paper, the focus is to develop a stable gait for a quadruped robot to trot on
uneven terrains. First, a stability condition is developed for a whole-body quadruped robot over uneven terrains based
on avoiding the tumbling. By using a simple model, a point with zero moments is calculated in the three-dimensional
space. Then, the reference path of this point is determined so that the tumbling moments become zero. The path of the
main body will be calculated by using an optimal controller. The main feature of the proposed gait generation framework
is that the height of robot can change continuously and stably on uneven terrains. To evaluate the robot stability, the
tumbling moments around diagonal lines are calculated and some methods are proposed to reduce these moments to
improve the robot stability. The tip of swing foot is also planned to avoid any collision with the environment.
The proposed method will be demonstrated using an 18-Degrees of freedom (DOF) quadruped robot in simulation
and experimental studies. The experimental setup is a small-size quadruped robot, which is composed of a rectangular
plate as its main body with four legs that each one has three active joints with DC servo motors. Obtained results reveal
that the robot can trot on uneven terrains stably. Besides, the comparison with the previous methods approves the
merits of proposed algorithm on uneven terrains.

Keywords
Quadruped robot, dynamics stability, trot gait, uneven terrains, 3D gait generation

Date received: 21 March 2015; accepted: 28 July 2015

Introduction
Legged robots, in particular quadruped ones, exhibit
a superior performance in locomotion over uneven
terrains. These robots can dexterously move on
highly rocky terrains, with steep slopes, deep holes,
various hills, and forbidden areas, by appropriate
selection of footsteps on these terrains. Despite con-
siderable progress in this field,1–4 there are still a lot of
unsolved problems to make a quadruped robot be
able to perform animal-like behaviors and the current
developed robots cannot have the same performance
as animals. For instance, designing a precise path for
the main body and swing leg of a quadruped robot on
dextrous areas is still a challenging problem.
In nature, animals properly choose different gaits
when move on various motion surfaces. In highly
rugged surfaces, where the major challenge is to
ensure the robot stability by shaping a bigger support
polygon, three legs are always in the contact with the
ground and only one leg is swinging during each step
of motion.5–7 The static gait as called walking, leads
to a low speed. To increase the robot speed, the trot
gait is chosen for a terrain with a medium degree of
irregularity. In this gait, diagonal legs (a leg and a
hand) are paired and move simultaneously.3,8,9
In high-speed motion, another gait as called gallop
gait is chosen. This gait is composed of two phases:
flight and stance,10,11 while the impact effects in high-
speed motion are the main challenge to develop this
gait. Thus, the trot gait offers advantages over uneven
terrains with low size of irregularities. Besides, this
gait is commonly used by quadruped mammals in
almost many situations. Consequently, in this paper,
the trot gait is selected as a dynamic gait, to propose
that over uneven terrains.
One of main challenges in the generation of a gait
on uneven terrains is to guarantee the robot’s
Department of Mechanical Engineering, Center of Excellence in
Robotics and Control, Advanced Robotics and Automated Systems
Lab, K. N. Toosi Univ of Tech, Tehran, Iran
Corresponding author:
Mahdi Khorram, Department of Mechanical Engineering, Center of
Excellence in Robotics and Control, Advanced Robotics and
Automated Systems Lab, K. N. Toosi Univ of Tech, Tehran, Iran.
Email: mahdi.khorram@gmail.com

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2 Proc IMechE Part C: J Mechanical Engineering Science 0(0)
stability, because most stability criteria are applicable
only over even terrains. The Zero Moment Point
(ZMP) is the popular criterion that is used for some
legged robots (biped, quadruped, etc.) to achieve a
stable path.12–14 Based on this criterion, the robot
continues its motion along the desired path provided
that the ZMP remains inside the support polygon as
spanned by the tip of stance feet. Since the height of
main body is a fixed value in this criterion and also the
ZMP is defined on the horizontal ground, it is only
applicable on the even terrains in usual form. Some
methods have been proposed to deal with the stability
evaluation on uneven terrains.15,16 To design a trot
gait on uneven terrains, it is essential to develop a
stability criterion for 3D motion of a quadruped
robot on uneven terrains. In this article, we attempt
to do it at first.
Gait generation for a quadruped robot has been
addressed in some studies. Through using a simple
model,17,18 the explicit Center of Gravity (COG)
path can be found by solving the ZMP dynamic equa-
tions19–21 or it can be calculated by using the preview
control,18 feedback, and feedforward control,22
model-predictive control,23 and optimization meth-
ods,13 for some cases, e.g. walking of a biped robot
with a fixed ZMP, also 3D trotting of a quadruped
robot (which is the focus of this paper), the ZMP path
may become discontinuous. The gait generation with
more complex models also were considered.24,25 The
ZMP-based trot gait was proposed and implemented
on the littleDog robot.26 In this method, an optimiza-
tion problem is defined to minimize squared acceler-
ations along the trajectory subject to ZMP stability
constraints. A main drawback of this method is that
the ZMP equations used in this work is based on the
assumption of zero ZMP along z-axis i.e. it is held on
the ground. In uneven terrains, the motion surface is
approximated by a virtual horizontal surface and the
motion is generated based on this surface by ZMP
method.27,28 Some methods have been suggested to
formulate the motion generation procedure in static-
ally walking over rough terrains.26,29
The CPG-inspired methods have been suggested to
design the gait for quadruped robots moving on even
and uneven terrains.30–32 In this method, the open-
loop signal is generated and sent to all legs to produce
the rhythmic motions. In the transition between dif-
ferent gaits, the Central Pattern Generator (CPG)
generates the signal to change the leg-lifting sequences
and modulate the time of each step within a gait.33 In
recent years, some attempts have been made to inte-
grate the sensor information to adapt for uneven
terrains.32,34
Many attempts have been carried out to plan the
trot gait. However, most of these works only address
this problem for motion over even terrains.35–38 To
enable the BigDog robot built by Boston Dynamics
in order to traverse rough terrains, a balanced trot
gait was designed and implemented, but there is no
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published information about this gait.1 Recently,
Spröwitz et al. designed a novel compliant quadruped
robot to achieve fast trotting gaits and implemented
on a treadmill.3 Thus, the design trot gait over uneven
terrains is still an ongoing research.
In this paper, the stability condition of a whole-
body quadruped robot will be presented. The
3D-ZMP is defined with based on a point–mass
model of the robot to design the trot gait on uneven
terrain. It is a point in the 3D space where the
moment produced by inertial and gravitational
forces becomes zero around all axes. The definition
of this point enables us to define a linear model to
compute the COG path in 3D motion. A dynamics
model that relates the ZMP position and the COG
acceleration is derived in the state–space form.
Then, an optimal control approach is used to minim-
ize the tracking error. The controller is designed so
that the terminal output reaches exactly to its desired
values. The proposed planning approach is based on a
point mass model of the robot. However, in the real
robot, the tumbling moments about diagonal lines
may make the robot unstable in the presence of the
masses of the legs. To reduce these moments, various
methods are proposed, such as increasing the duration
of a step, or designing of a better trajectory for
the swing legs, and finally by the adjustment of the
role angle of the main body. Finally, to complete
the motion generation procedure, the tip of swing
foot path will be planned. Compared to even terrains,
in designing the tip of feet path on uneven terrain, the
collision avoidance is an important factor. A compari-
son with previous methods will be done to show the
merits of the proposed algorithm especially on uneven
terrains. The proposed algorithm makes sure that the
moments about supporting legs become zero. Finally,
the proposed algorithm is applied on a real robot by
using a feed-forward control and the obtained experi-
mental results will be discussed.
Stability evaluation over uneven terrains
For even terrains, the ZMP criterion is usually used to
obtain a stable motion. However, this criterion is not
applicable for motion over uneven terrains. This is
due to the fact that ZMP is normally defined on the
ground plane and expressed only in two-dimensional
spaces, whereas for uneven terrains, the ZMP should
move in 3D space. Thus, a point in 3D space can be
chosen, and the moment of all forces about this point
must become zero. Despite conventional ZMP
method, since this point has three components, we
specify that by 3D ZMP.
In this study, the geometry equation of the terrain
is assumed to be known. In other words, the robot
trots on the known uneven terrains. To trot on the
various uneven and known terrains, a plan of the foot-
prints is generated via a footstep planning algorithm.
Then, the 3D stable COG path will be computed with
Khorram and Moosavian
the proposed algorithm. Since the designed COG path
ensures the zero-tumbling moments about the sup-
porting legs, the trotting on uneven terrains will be
realized. Therefore, the robot can trot stably on the
various terrains based on the designed footprints plan.
In trot gait, which is the focus of this paper, the
robot becomes unstable when there exists a moment
about the diagonal line of the supporting legs. This is
due to the fact that in this gait diagonal legs (a leg and
a hand) are paired and move simultaneously. Thus,
the moment of the forces exerted on the main body
about this diagonal line should be zero to guarantee
the robot stability. In fact, we have
M13 ¼ 0 if leg 1 and 3 are in the stance phase
M24 ¼ 0 if leg 2 and 4 are in the stance phase
ð1Þ
where M13 and M24 denote the tumbling moments
about the diagonal lines of supporting legs 1 and 3
and also legs 2 and 4, respectively.
To generate an appropriate gait, we first define a
point with zero moment and design the COG path so
that this point remains on the diagonal supporting
line. This guarantees zero moment of the external
forces, which prohibits any tumbling. Therefore, fol-
lowing this approach, the stability of the robot is
guaranteed. In the procedure of computation of sta-
bility condition, it is assumed that there is sufficient
friction between the stance legs and the environment.
In other words, the tips of stance legs do not slip
Figure 1. A quadruped robot on the uneven terrain, (a) the robot and the terrains, (b) the diagonal line of the supporting legs as well
as inertial and gravitational forces are applied on the COG and all legs.
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3
during the robot motion. Based on the above, in the
following, the 3D ZMP will be derived.
3D ZMP computation
Our objective is to obtain a point with zero moment.
Let us consider a quadruped robot model which is
shown in Figure 1. To obtain the 3D ZMP, the sum
of moment of external forces (inertial and gravita-
tional forces) of all legs and main body, M3DZMP , is
computed about this point and set equal to zero as
follow
 
M3DZMP ¼ 0 ) ðPG  PZMP Þ  mP€ G þ mg
Xm Xn  
þ PijG  PZMP
i¼1 j¼1
ð2Þ
 
 mij P€ ijG þ mij g ¼ O
where, PG and PijG denote the positions of the COG of
main body and the COG of ith segment of the jth leg,
respectively. PZMP is the position of ZMP in the 3D
space.g is the gravitational acceleration vector. m and
mij are the masses of the main body and the jth seg-
ment of the ith leg, respectively. In the above equa-
tion, the angular moment effects of the main body and
all legs are ignored. This assumption is made to get a
simple model for the ZMP. Using a simple model of
the ZMP equation leads to a COG generation algo-
rithm, which is computationally efficient. In addition,
it is assumed the robot has m leg and each leg is made
4 Proc IMechE Part C: J Mechanical Engineering Science 0(0)

up of n segments. Here, we have m ¼ 4, n ¼ 2. 8   

Through the simplification of above equation, the >
> m g þ P€ zG PyG  pyZMP
>
>  
ZMP can be calculated from the following equation >
> þ PzG  pzZMP mP€ yG ¼ 0 ðaÞ
>
>
>
! < mg þ P€ z Px  px 
>
2   G G ZMP
  X4 X )  z  x
PZMP  mP€ G þ mg þ mij P€ ijG þ mij g >
> þ PG  pZMP mP€ G ¼ 0
z
ðbÞ
>
>  
i¼1 j¼1 >
>
>  PxG  pxZMP mP€ yG
>
  X4 X
2 >
>  
ð3Þ :
¼ PG  mP€ G þ mg þ þ PyG  pyZMP mP€ xG ¼ 0 ðcÞ
i¼1 j¼1
  
 PijG  mij P€ ijG þ mij g To ensure the robot stability, the COG path should be
designed so that the three above equations are always
Based on the above equation and according to the held. If the desired ZMP path is known, the solution
cross product properties, a necessary condition to of these equations offers the COG path. However, the
find a ZMP point in 3D space is defined as computation of the COG path with these equations is
! not a simple task due to the fact that there exists a
  X 2 
4 X  nonlinear relationship between the COG acceleration
€ € ij
mPG þ mg þ mij PG þ mij g : and position and also the ZMP position. However, if
i¼1 j¼1
   first two ZMP equations i.e. equations (7a) and (7b)
€ are always satisfied, the nonlinear equation i.e. (7c) is
 PG  mPG þ mg ð4Þ
met. In other words, the meeting of only the first two
2 
4 X
X   equations is sufficient to maintain the robot stability.
þ PijG  mij P€ ijG þ mij g ¼0 To prove this claim, we can rewrite equations (7a) and
i¼1 j¼1 (7b) as follows
  
This equation expresses that it should exist a nonlinear m g þ P€ zG PxG  pxZMP
relationship between the path of all legs and main body P€ xG ¼  z 
PG  pzZMP
to find a zero moment point in 3D space. The satisfac-    ð8Þ
tion of the above condition is not a simple task and y m g þ P€ zG PyG  pyZMP
P€ G ¼  z 
also it makes the design procedure of the path of swing PG  pzZMP
legs and main body a complicated task. Therefore, the
computation of ZMP point in 3D space may not be If above equations are substituted in equation (7c),
possible and it depends on the path of the main body the proof will be completed
and all legs. In the case that the robot has the light legs,
   
the terms associated to the legs are deleted from equa-  PxG  pxZMP mP€ yG þ PyG  pyZMP mP€ xG ¼ 0 )
tions (3) and (4). Now, we can see that the condition (4)   
  m g þ P€ zG PyG  pyZMP
is met easily in this case as follow  PxG  pxZMP  z 
PG  pzZMP
       
mP€ G þ mg : PG  mP€ G þ mg ¼ 0 ð5Þ  y y  m g þ P€ zG PxG  pxZMP
þ PG  pZMP  z  ¼0
PG  pzZMP
With neglecting the masses of all legs, in fact, the
quadruped robot is replaced by a point mass model ð9Þ
at the COG of the main body. For the new model, the
ZMP is calculated as follows As seen, equations (7a) and (7b) are still nonlinear
equations in terms of the components of the ZMP.
 
ðPG  PZMP Þ  mP€ G þ mg ¼ 0 ð6Þ To get a linear form of above equations, let us
define ! as
where PG and PZMP denote the COG and the ZMP  
position with respect to the world coordinate frame, Pz  pzZMP
respectively. In addition, the vector g represents the ! ¼ G  ð10Þ
g þ P€ zG
gravitational acceleration vector. By simplifying equa-
tion (6), the relation between the ZMP and the COG ! is assumed to be a constant value. As shown in the
can be expressed as following, ZMP equations in three directions are
linked via this parameter. The time varying of !
 
 b
i b
j b
k  makes the ZMP equation the time variant and thus
 
 x  solving the equation in order to obtain the COG path
 PG  pxZMP PyG  pyZMP z z
PG  pZMP  ¼ 0 ð7Þ
  becomes more complicated. On other hands, there is a
 mP€ x mP€ y mð g þ P€ z Þ 
G G G distance between the ZMP and the COG path along
the z-axis because of the height of the main body.

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Khorram and Moosavian
This distance can be regulated by this parameter.
High variation of this parameter leads to the height
variation and it is not desirable on the uneven ter-
rains. Here, we can introduce the ZMP equation
along z-axis based on above equation as follows
 
PzZMP ¼ PzG  ! g þ P€ zG
T
This equation has an additional term in the compari-
son with the traditional ZMP equations along x- and
y-axes, which is the influence of gravitational acceler-
ation in the ZMP equation along z-axis. Therefore,
the ZMP along z-axis is not coincident with the
COG when the acceleration of the COG becomes
zero. To eliminate the gravitational term from the
ZMP equation along z-axis, we define a new param-
eter PzG,v as
PzG,v ¼ PzG  !g
PzG,v defines an virtual COG path. The ZMP equation
is expressed in terms of this parameter instead of the
COG. By substituting equation (12) in equation (11),
the ZMP equation along the z-axis can be simplified as
PzZMP ¼ PzG,v  !P€ zG,v
This equation represents a relationship between the
virtual COG and the ZMP, which is similar to the
equations along the x-and y-axes. When the acceler-
ation of the virtual COG is zero i.e. the acceleration of
the COG becomes zero, the ZMP along z-axis is equal
to the virtual COG. In the following, the ZMP equa-
tions along x- and y-axes can be defined by using
equations (8), (10), and (11) as follows
pxZMP ¼ PxG  !P€ xG
py
ZMP ¼ Py  !P€ y
G G
As seen, the relationships between the ZMP position
and the COG acceleration in three directions are
linear and time-invariant equations. This makes the
problem simple to obtain the stable COG path by
utilizing a linear controller. In addition, the ZMP
equations along different axes are independent from
each other. Thus, the COG path generation algorithm
can be performed along each axis independently.
ZMP dynamics equations
To design a stable motion, the ZMP reference path is
generated at first and the COG acceleration will be
adjusted so that the ZMP moves along its reference
path. The COG path generation algorithm can be
viewed as a tracking problem. Therefore, it is neces-
sary to transform the ZMP equations into an appro-
priate state–space model. In the following, the
dynamics model along one axis, for instance x-axis,
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5
will be derived. The same procedure can be employed
to derive similar equations along other axes. The dis-
crete model of the ZMP equation can be derived as
Xððk þ 1ÞTÞ ¼ Ad XðkTÞ þ Bd UðkTÞ
YðkTÞ ¼ Cd XðkTÞ k ¼ 1, 2, . . .
ð11Þ
XðkTÞ ¼ PxG ðkTÞ P_ xG ðkTÞ P€ xG ðkTÞ ,
UðkTÞ ¼ PxG ðkTÞ, YðkTÞ ¼ pxZMP ðkTÞ
2 3 2 3 3
1 T T2 =2 T =6
6 7 6 2 7
Ad ¼ 4 0 1 T 5, Bd ¼ 4 T =2 5,
0 0 1 T
Cd ¼ 1 0 !
ð15Þ
ð12Þ where T denotes the sampling time. By using above
ZMP dynamics equation, the jerk of the COG can be
regulated so that the error between the measured and
desired ZMP is minimized. In the next section, the
ZMP reference path generation will be presented.
We define a path in 3D space based on the desired
path of the main body so that if the ZMP travels
ð13Þ along that path, the robot continues its motion with-
out any falling.
ZMP reference path over uneven terrains
Our objective is to design a path for the COG so that
the robot remains stable. First of all, we design the
ZMP path based on the desired COG path and also
the location of the footprints. This is due to the fact
that the COG path becomes exactly equal to the ZMP
path when the COG acceleration becomes zero as
described by the ZMP dynamic equations. Thus, the
ð14Þ ZMP path is designated based on the desired COG
path so that the robot begins its motion from initial
position and arrives at the predetermined target. In
the cases that the robot wants to change its COG
path, the ZMP path should be modified accordingly.
In this section, the ZMP reference path will be com-
puted based on knowing of the accurate position of
footprints.
To attain the stability, the supporting diagonal
lines must be as a part of the ZMP reference path.
During the trot gait, the ZMP path must be changed
when the supporting legs switch. The shift form a
diagonal line to next diagonal line takes place at the
intersection point of these two lines. In trotting on
even terrains, the intersection points always exist.
However, in uneven terrains due to properties of the
3D lines, these points maybe not find. In other words,
the supporting diagonal lines may be skew lines. Thus,
the ZMP reference path becomes discontinuous and
that causes sudden jump form on diagonal line to the
other. To improve the smoothness of the ZMP path,
the ZMP path is designed so that the discontinuous
6 Proc IMechE Part C: J Mechanical Engineering Science 0(0)

changes will appear only along one axis. Here, the intersect each other, the intersection point in the 3D
ZMP path along z-axis will be discontinuous. space is used to calculate the ZMP reference path. The
switching point of the intersecting diagonal lines for
first and second steps of each gait can be calculated as
ZMP reference path along x- and y-axes
2  3
To design the ZMP reference path, as shown in Px3,i þ ki,1 ð1, 1Þ Px3,i  Px1,i
Figure 2, the 3D diagonal supporting lines are pro- 6  7
6 y y y 7
jected into a horizontal plane. Then, the ZMP reference Pswt,1i ¼ 6 P3,i þ ki,1 ð1, 1Þ P3,i  P1,i 7
6
7,
paths are calculated along the x- and y-axes by using 4  5
these 2D lines. The switching from one diagonal line Pz3,i þ ki,1 ð1, 1Þ Pz3,i  Pz1,i
into next diagonal line, which takes place at the instant 2  3
of switching of the supporting legs, is assumed to occur Px3,iþ1 þ ki,2 ð1, 1Þ Px3,iþ1  Px1,iþ1
6  7
at the intersection point of two adjacent 2D diagonal 6 y y y 7
lines. However, in the case in which two diagonal lines Pswt,2i ¼6 P
6 3,iþ1 þ k i,2 ð1, 1Þ P3,iþ1  P 7
1,iþ1 7
4  5
Pz3,iþ1 þ ki,2 ð1, 1Þ Pz3,iþ1  Pz1,iþ1
ð16Þ

where ki,1 and ki,2 are given by

2   31 " #
Px1,i  Px3,i  Px4,i  Px2,i Px2,i  Px3,i
6 7
ki,1 ¼ 4  5 ,
Py1,i  Py3,i  Py4,i  P72,i Py2,i  Py3,i
2   31
Px1,iþ1  Px3,iþ1  Px4,i  Px2,i
6 7
ki,2 ¼ 4  5
y y y 7
P1,iþ1  P3,iþ1  P4,i  P2,i
" #
Px2,i  Px3,iþ1

Py2,i  Py3,iþ1
ð17Þ
Figure 2. The footholds and diagonal lines in 3D space during
trotting over uneven terrains. The ZMP reference paths in 3D In some cases especially over uneven terrains, the sup-
space and also in x–y plane are represented by blue and green porting diagonal lines are skew lines. The switching
lines, respectively. points for nonintersecting diagonal lines can be

Figure 3. The COG and legs path generation algorithm for trotting a quadruped robot on uneven terrains.

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Khorram and Moosavian 7

calculated as

2   31 2   3 2   31
Px1,i Px3,i Px1,i Px3,i Px1,iþ1 Px3,iþ1
" #   x   y " #  
Pxswt,1i 6 1  Py Py 7 6 P1,i  Py Py P1,i 7 Pxswt,2i 61  y
P1,iþ1 Py3,iþ1 7
6 1,i 3,i 7 6 1,i 3,i 7 6 7
¼6  7 6   7, ¼6   7
Pyswt,1i 4 Px4,i Px2,i 5 4 x Px4,i Px2,i y 5 Pyswt,2i 4 Px4,i Px2,i 5
1  y y  P2,i   y y  P2,i 1  y y 
P4,i P2,i P4,i P2,i P4,i P2,i
2   3 ð18Þ
x x
P1,iþ1 P3,iþ1 y
Px
6 1,iþ1    P 1,iþ1 7
6 Py1,iþ1 Py3,iþ1 7
6   7
4 P x
P x
y 5
Px2,i   y y  P2,i
4,i 2,i

P4,i P2,i

The z-component of the switching points can be where

described as
Pxswt,11  Px0 Px  Px0
  ax1 ¼ , ax2 ¼ Pxswt,11  swt,11 T2 ,
T2  T1 T2  T1
Pz1,i  Pz3,i  
Pyswt,11  Py0 Pyswt,11  Py0
z,b
Pswt,1i ¼ Pz1,i þ   Pyswt,1i  Py1,i , ay1 ¼ , ay2 ¼ Pyswt,11  T2 ;
Py1,i  Py3,i T2  T1 T2  T1
x x
  Pswt,21  Pswt,11 Pswt,21  Pxswt,11
x

Pz4,i  Pz2,i   ax3 ¼ , ax4 ¼ Pxswt,21  T3 ,

T3  T2 T3  T2
z,a
Pswt,1i ¼ Pz2,i þ   Pyswt,1i  Py2,i
Py4,i  Py2,i Py  Pyswt,11 Py  Pyswt,11
ay3 ¼ swt,21 , ay4 ¼ Pyswt,21  swt,21 T3
  ð19Þ T3  T2 T3  T2
Pz4,i  Pz2,i   ð21Þ
z,b
Pswt,2i ¼ Pz2,i þ   Pyswt,2i  Py2,i ,
y y
P4,i  P2,i
  where it is assumed that the duration of the first

and
Pz1,iþ1  Pz3,iþ1   second steps of a single gait is T T and
z,a
Pswt,2i ¼ Pz1,iþ1 þ   Pyswt,2i  Py1,iþ1
1 2
T2 T3 , respectively. In addition,P0 is the initial
Py1,iþ1  Py3,iþ1
position of the ZMP, which is usually equal to the
initial position of the COG because initial acceler-
where Pxswt,1i and Pyswt,1i denote the position of inter- ation is assumed to be zero.
section point of the current diagonal line of the sup-
porting legs with the next diagonal line. If legs 2 and 4
ZMP reference path along z-axes
go to the swing phase at the start of a single gait, as
seen in Figure 2, Pswt,1i will be the intersection point of As explained earlier, the discontinuous variation of
the diagonal line associated to the supporting legs 1 the ZMP path occurs along the z-axis when the sup-
and 3 and the diagonal line associated to the new porting diagonal legs are skew lines. In these situ-
footholds of the legs 2 and 4. Pxswt,2i and Pyswt,2i repre- ations, the z-components of the diagonal lines at the
sent the intersection point of the diagonal line asso- intersection points are used to calculate the ZMP ref-
ciated to the supporting legs 2 and 4 of current gait erence path and there are some jumps in the reference
and the diagonal line associated to the new footholds ZMP path at the points where the 2D diagonal lines
of the legs 1 and 3 of next gait. In this case, the ZMP intersect each other. Therefore, the z-directional ZMP
paths along the x- and y-axes at each step become trajectory for single gait can be written as
piecewise continuous straight line. The x- and y-direc-

tional ZMP trajectories within a single gait can be az1 t þ az2 T1 4t4T2
defined as Pz,d
ZMP ðtÞ ¼ ð22Þ
az3 t þ az4 T2 4t4T3

 where the coefficients of above equations during single

ax1 t þ ax2 T1 4t4T2 gait are given as
Px,d
ZMP ðtÞ ¼ ,
ax3 t þ ax4 T2 4t4T3
( ð20Þ
ay1 t þ ay2 T1 4t4T2 Pz,b z
swt,1i  P0 Pz,b z
swt,1i  P0
Py,d
ZMP ðtÞ ¼ az1 ¼ , az2 ¼ Pz,b
swt,1i  T2
ay3 t þ ay4 T2 4t4T3 T2  T1 T2  T1

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8 Proc IMechE Part C: J Mechanical Engineering Science 0(0)

Pz,b z,a
swt,2i  Pswt,1i input that leads to a minimum value for J can be
az3 ¼ , defined as
T3  T2
Pz,b z,a
swt,2i  Pswt,1i  1
az4 ¼ Pz,b
swt,2i  T3 ð23Þ ui ¼ R1 BTd I þ Kiþ1 Bd R1 BTd
T3  T2   1
T T
 Kiþ1 Ad Xi þMiþ1 S11 Cf Cf Cf
where Pz,b z,a
swt,1i and Pswt,1i are the z-components of the 
intersection point Pswt,1i on diagonal line of the sup-  T

 yf Cf M1 X1 Cf h1 þgiþ1 i ¼ 1, . . . , N
porting legs 1 and 3 and diagonal line of supporting
legs 2 and 4, respectively. In addition, Pz,a swt,2i and ð26Þ
Pz,b
swt,2i are the z-components of intersection point
Pswt,2i on diagonal line of the supporting legs 2 and in the above equation, Ki , Mi , gi , Si and hi matrices
4 in the current gait and diagonal line of supporting can be calculated by using the following recursive
legs 1 and 3 in the next gait, respectively. When there expressions
is an intersection point between the diagonal lines, the
 1
z-component of this point is used to define the ZMP Km ¼ Ad Kmþ1 I þ Bd R1 BTd Kmþ1 Ad þCTd QCd
reference path. In this case, the coefficients of the path  1
can be calculated as Mm ¼ ATd I þ Kmþ1 Bd R1 BTd Mmþ1
 1
gm ¼ ATd I þ Kmþ1 Bd R1 BTd gmþ1
Pzswt,1i  Pz0 Pzswt,1i  Pz0 CTd Qyf m ¼ N  1 : ... : 1
az1 ¼ , az2 ¼ Pzswt,1i  T2 ;  1 ð27Þ
T2  T1 T2  T1
hm ¼ hmþ1 MTmþ1 I þ Bd R1 BTd Kmþ1
Pzswt,2i  Pzswt,1i Pzswt,2i  Pzswt,1i
az3 ¼ , az4 ¼ Pzswt,2i  T3  Bd R1 BTd gmþ1
T3  T2 T3  T2
 1
ð24Þ Sm ¼ Smþ1 MTmþ1 I þ Bd R1 BTd Kmþ1
 Bd R1 BTd gmþ1
Thus, the coefficients of the z-directional ZMP
reference path for both cases are determined from the boundary conditions for solving above equations
equations (23) and (24). can be defined as

KN ¼ O33 , MN ¼ I33 , gN ¼ O31 ,

Controller design ð28Þ
SN ¼ O33 , hN ¼ O33
To obtain the COG path, we can solve the ZMP
dynamics equation explicitly or by using the control Since the terminal conditions are only specified to solve
approach. Here, a linear quadratic controller will be (27), these equations must be resolved backward.
defined to minimize the error between the output of When the matrices are obtained, the optimal input
defined model and its reference values along with add- can be calculated by equation (26). The states of the
itional constraints to resulting from terminal ZMP dynamics model i.e. the COG path can be calculated by
and initial conditions of all states. This controller is equation (15). In brief, the COG Path Generation algo-
used due to the fact that the z-directional ZMP path is rithm is depicted in Figure 3. The appropriate footsteps
a discontinuous function. Based on the ZMP equa- on the uneven terrain are chosen by a footsteps plan-
tion, to obtain COG path, the control problem is ning algorithm. Here, it is assumed that the terrain
defined as equation is known by using a vision measurement
system. Then, the footsteps over the terrains are speci-
fied by an expert user with precise consideration of the
1X N  
terrains equation and physical specification of the
J¼ Y~ Ti QY~ i þ uTi Rui
2 i¼1 robot. Since the focus of present work is not the
subject to design of the footsteps, this method was used to find
 ð25Þ the appropriate footprints. Then, the ZMP reference
Xððk þ 1ÞTÞ ¼ Ad XðkTÞ þ Bd UðkTÞ
path is generated by using equations (20) and (22)
YðkTÞ ¼ Cd XðkTÞ and the COG path is computed by equation (15).
X1 ¼ X0 , YN ¼ yf ¼ Cf Xf
Path planning for the tip of swing foot
where Y~ denotes the error between the measured and A suitable path for the tip of the swing legs particu-
desired ZMP i.e. Y~ ¼ pxZMP  px,d
ZMP . In addition, yf larly on uneven terrains must be taken into account to
represents the terminal desired ZMP. By using the enable the robot to negotiate successfully over these
method was proposed by Park et al.,39 the optimal terrains. In this paper, a piecewise-cubic spline is used

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Khorram and Moosavian 9

Figure 4. The swing leg path to cross over the uneven terrain.

to design the path of swing legs.40,41 In this section, it adjusted for having a collision-free path.i is the
is assumed that the initial and terminal positions of angle between the line and the x-axis which is calcu-
each swing leg are known by using an appropriate lated as
footstep planning algorithm. As shown in Figure 4,
the distance between the initial and final positions in !
1
PSWL,j
z,f  PSWL,j
z,i
each step is divided into four segments and a piece- i ¼ tan ð31Þ
wise-cubic spline is defined for each segment to pass PSWL,j
x,f  PSWL,j
x,i
through these waypoints, while some additional con-
straints are required to satisfy smoothness conditions. The waypoints of PSWL,j SWL,j
midi and Pmidf can be obtained by
The waypoints are chosen to avoid any collision
with the environment. Since it is assumed that the
terrain equation is known, the waypoints are selected PSWL,j þ PSWL,j
PSWL,j
midi ¼
mid midi
,
based on this equation. The waypoints for jth swing 2
ð32Þ
leg are defined as PSWL,j
mid þ PSWL,j
midf
PSWL,j
midf ¼
2
h i
PSWL,j
midp ¼ PSWL,j SWL,j SWL,j
midi , Pmid , Pmidf ð29Þ
To find the trajectory for each swing leg, a cubic func-
tion is chosen for each segment. For instance, swing
Since it is assumed that the swing legs move only in foot trajectory for the mth segment of the jth leg can
the x–z plane and the y-components of the footprints be expressed as
are the same, the position of midpoint between the
initial and final footholds for one step is calculated as
PTSWL,j
m ¼ am ðt  tm Þ3 þbm ðt  tm Þ2 þcm ðt  tm Þ
þ dm tm 4 t4tmþ1
PSWL,j
x,i þ PSWL,j
x,f
PSWL,j
x,mid ¼  h sinði Þ, ð33Þ
2 ð30Þ
PSWL,j
z,i þ PSWL,j
z,f
PSWL,j
z,mid ¼ þ h cosði Þ To find the coefficients of the above equation, some
2
constraints should be added. To guarantee the
smoothness of the path, these polynomials must be
where h is the maximum height of the tip of swing leg continuous in the position, velocity, and acceleration
respect to the line connecting the initial and final pos- levels. In addition, the path must pass through defined
itions of a leg within a step. This parameter can be waypoints. Consequently, the coefficients of defined

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10 Proc IMechE Part C: J Mechanical Engineering Science 0(0)

also rotate about all three axes. Therefore, the robot

has totally 18 DOFs. The explicit dynamics model of
the robot was obtained and validated. The designed
paths are applied on the robot to show the effective-
ness of proposed algorithm.
Since the main contribution of this paper is the
locomotion over uneven terrains, an uneven terrain
model must be taken into account at the first.
This type of the terrain can be expressed as
8
> 0 x40:4
>
>
< 0:9ðx  0:4Þ0:7 þ0:1ðx  0:4Þ
Z¼  
> þ0:15ðx  0:4Þ0:5 cos 20ðx  0:4Þ0:5 0:44x43
>
>
:
2:17 x53
ð35Þ

The above curve is defined in the x–z plane. The pro-

file of 3D terrain will be constituted via the extension
of this curve along the y-axis. This terrain is shown in
Figure 6(a). The y-components of the footprints of
Figure 5. The Quadruped robot configuration, which is taken each leg are the same. This is due to the fact that
as a model in the simulation. there is not any roughness along the y-direction.
Another terrain with the roughness along three direc-
tions is selected to shown the merits of the proposed
polynomials can be computed by solving the follow- algorithm. This terrain is shown in Figure 6(b).
ing equations The geometric parameters, which are introduced in
Figure 5, the control parameters, and the essential
PSWL,j
1 ðt1 Þ ¼ PSWL,j
i , PSWL,j
4 ðt5 Þ ¼ PSWL,j
f , data for the design of the path of COG and swing
legs are summarized in Table 1.
PSWL,j
m ðtmþ1 Þ ¼ PSWL,j SWL,j SWL,j
midp ðmÞ, Pmþ1 ðtmþ1 Þ ¼ Pmidp ðmÞ To design the COG path, the reference ZMP path
P_ SWL,j
m ðtm Þ ¼ P_ SWL,j
mþ1 ðtm Þ, Pm
€ SWL,j ðtm Þ ¼ P€ SWL,j ðtm Þ
mþ1
must be designed at first. The reference paths along
m ¼ 1,   , 3 three axes were calculated by using the proposed
method. A four-support phase is chosen at the initial
P_ SWL,j ðt1 Þ ¼ O, P_ SWL,j ðt5 Þ ¼ O
1 4 and final of the motion. The ZMP is a constant value
ð34Þ during these steps. This is due to the fact that the
robot gets ready to take a step stably. The time of
It is noted that to ignore the influence of the feet each step within the trot gait is the same and its
impact on the robot stability, the initial and final velo- value is assumed to be 0.4 s.
cities of swing legs are set equal to zero. The joint To apply the proposed optimal control, the value
angle of all legs for moving over uneven terrains can of ! must be calculated. Since the initial position of
be found by the COG and the swing-leg path by using the COG and also initial z-directional ZMP reference
inverse kinematics. are known, this parameter can be calculated by using
equation (12) as follows

Obtained results and discussions PzG ðt0 Þ  PzG,v ðt0 Þ

!¼ ¼ 0:0714 ð36Þ
System description g

To show the validity and examine the performance of
the proposed algorithm, the COG and swing leg paths
are generated and are applied on a quadruped robot,
which is depicted in Figure 5, in the simulation and
the experiment. Also, obtained results will be dis-
cussed. The robot is composed of four legs. Each leg
has three degrees of freedom to allow the robot to
move its leg freely in 3D space. The joints of each
leg are two hip joints about pitch and roll axes and
a knee joint about pitch axis. In addition, the main
body of the robot is free to move along all axes and
in the above equation, the initial acceleration of the
COG is assumed to be zero.
Experimental setup
The proposed algorithm is implemented on a small-
size quadruped robot, which is composed of a rect-
angular base with four legs that each one has three
active joints with DC servo motors, as shown in
Figure 7. Dynamixel AX-12 actuator is chosen for
each leg. This motor is a modular one with a gear

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Khorram and Moosavian 11

Figure 6. Uneven terrains that the robot must move on it, (a) with roughness along only two directions and (b) with roughness
along three directions. The color circles represent the footholds of all legs during the robot motion form initial position to terminal
position. Green, red, blue, and black circles show the footholds of left front, left hind, right hind, and right front legs, respectively.

box and a control circuitry. Also, it has the position
feedback via a potentiometer mounted on the motor
shaft. The maximum holding torque of this motor is
1.62 Nm at 10 V. In addition, the maximum speed of
this motor is 114 r/min or 11.9 rad/sec. The operating
angle of the motor is 300 . The speed control of the
motor is performed by pulse width modulation algo-
rithm. Also, transistor-transistor logic (TTL) level
serial communications are used to send and receive
signals. The desired values and all computations are
performed in MATLAB and the computed com-
mands are sent to the motors.
The experiments were executed using a laptop Intel
i5-2430 with 2.4 GHz processor and 6.00 GB RAM.
The connection between the motor and the PC is
established with USB2Dynamixel. A KINECT
device, which has a depth sensor and two Red-
Green-Blue (RGB) cameras, is used to measure the
position of the main body in the 3D space through
image processing. This camera takes the image from
the robot with the rate of 30 frames per second and
the images are analyzed to compute the position of
the COG. The position control frequency of the robot
is restricted by the vision measurement systems.

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12 Proc IMechE Part C: J Mechanical Engineering Science 0(0)

Despite the fact that the motors have higher fre- COG jerk. Since ensuring stability has higher priority
quency, the sampling time of our experimental in the locomotion over uneven terrains, the tracking
system is 33 ms. error weight is chosen higher than the jerk weight.
The COG, reference and resultant ZMP paths in
three directions for both terrains are shown in
Obtained results
Figure 8. The error between the resulting ZMP and
The selection of the optimization weight parameter is its desired values for a point mass model is very small
an important issue in the obtained results. There is a and this provides a stable motion. When the COG
trade-off between the minimization of the ZMP track- moves along the obtained path, the stability of the
ing error and the COG jerk through the tune of the robot is ensured because the resultant ZMP is very
values of the weight parameters Q and R. These par- near to the desired value at each instant. In addition,
ameters are chosen based on which objective has more the algorithm provides a smooth COG path, which is
importance: the reduction of the ZMP error or the important in control task to apply continues torques
to the actuators. Compared to previous methods,
which takes a constant height in the COG path plan-
ning, the height of the COG changes continuously in
Table 1. The geometric parameters and required data in the order to match the terrain.
design of COG path for simulation studies. The swing leg path must be generated to help the
Value
robot to move over the uneven terrain. The path of
Symbol (unit) Definition swing legs for all legs for traversing the terrain shown
in Figure 6(a) is depicted in Figure 9. As seen, the
m 10 (kg) Robot’s body mass swing legs move on the ground without any collision
l1 0.4 (m) Length of thigh with the environment. h is assumed to be a constant
l2 0.6 (m) Length of shank value in the design of the path for all swing legs.
m1 0.1 (kg) Mass of thigh We could also select different values for this param-
m2 0.1 (kg) Mass of shank eter for each step and leg.
Lb 0.8 (m) Length of body With the computation of the COG and the swing
Wb 0.3 (m) Width of body leg paths and also the selection of an appropriate
value for the main body orientations, the robot con-
hb 0.15 (m) Height of body
figuration can be determined during the motion.
lc1 0.2 (m) Distance between the hip joint to
This is performed by using an inverse kinematics algo-
the COG of the thigh
rithm. The stick figure of the quadruped in the
lc2 0.3 (m) Distance between the knee joint to
trotting on the uneven terrain is shown in Figure 11.
the COG of the shank
In the design of main body orientation, the avoidance
Q 1 Tracking error weight
of the collision of the swing and stance leg with envir-
R 106 Input weight
onment is taken into consideration. Due to avoid the
h 0.1 (m) Maximum height for the tip of swing tipping over the robot, the minimum pitch angle is
legs
selected. Due to lack of space, the orientation design
algorithm is not described here.

Figure 7. The experimental setup.

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Khorram and Moosavian 13

4 3.5
(a) 0.04
3.0
3 0.02
2.5
0.00
2 2.0
-0.02
X(m)

Z(m)
Y(m)
1.5
1 -0.04
1.0
The COG -0.06 0.5
0 The Reference ZMP
The Resultant ZMP -0.08 0.0

-1 -0.10 -0.5
0 2 4 6 8 10 12 14 16 18 0 2 4 6 8 10 12 14 16 18 0 2 4 6 8 10 12 14 16 18
Time(sec) Time(sec) Time(sec)

(b)

Figure 8. The desired and resulting ZMP as well the COG path in three-dimensional space for a point mass model, (a) for terrain
with the roughness along x and y axes (Figure 6(a)) and (b) for terrain with the roughness along three axes (Figure 6(b)). The blue solid
lines correspond to the COG path and red solid lines to the reference ZMP. The dashed black lines represent the resultant ZMP.

2.5 2.5

2.0 The Terrain 2.0 The Terrain

The Path of Leg 1 The Path of Leg 2

1.5 1.5
Z(m)
Z(m)

1.0 1.0

0.5 0.5

0.0 0.0

0 1 2 3 4 5 -1 0 1 2 3 4 5
X(m) X(m)

2.5 2.5

2.0 The Terrain 2.0 The Terrain

The Path of Leg 3 The Path of Leg 4

1.5 1.5
Z(m)

Z(m)

1.0 1.0

0.5 0.5

0.0 0.0

-1 0 1 2 3 4 5 0 1 2 3 4 5
X(m) X(m)

Figure 9. The two-dimensional path of the legs and the terrain in the X–Z plane for terrain 6-a.

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14 Proc IMechE Part C: J Mechanical Engineering Science 0(0)

Compared to the other methods, in this paper, the located in the ground surface, thus the z-component
ZMP path is designed along three axes. In other of the ZMP becomes zero, whereas, in the step 3, one
words, the height of main body is calculated through supporting leg is located on the horizontal plane and
the ZMP equation. Whereas, the z-directional COG other stance leg is placed on a plane, which is not
path along is assumed to be constant or an arbitrary coplanar with the horizontal plane and the ZMP
function of time in previous methods. The compari- should leave the ground in this case. The paths of the
son between the proposed algorithm and the method COG for both methods are shown in Figure 10. The
presented in Kalakrishnan et al.13 is shown in Figure moment about support legs for point mass model for
10. The motion consists of three steps. During step 1, both methods is shown in Figure 10. As seen, when the
all four legs are the contact with the ground. Within ZMP is on the ground, i.e. z-component of the ZMP is
step 2 and 3, legs of 1 and 3; legs of 2 and 4 are in zero, both methods result in zero moments. However,
swing phase, respectively. In step 2, the stance legs are in the case that the ZMP has three components, the
proposed method shows its merit. Since the proposed
method in Kalakrishnan et al.13 is based on the
3.5
assumption of Pzzmp ¼ 0, the moment about support
legs is no longer zero and it produces a tumbling
3.0 moment about diagonal supporting line and the
2.5
robot becomes unstable. The influence of this tumbling
moment for real robot becomes more important.
2.0 Now, the generated paths are applied on an 18 DOF
Z(m)

1.5
quadruped robot in the simulation. Since the main
challenge is the stability, it should be evaluated
1.0 during the motion. In other words, the 3D ZMP for
0.5
the robot should be calculated. Since the calculation of
this point is a difficult task, the moment of the inertial
0.0 and gravitational forces of all legs and main body
0 1 2 3 4
about diagonal lines and also the angular moment of
X(m)
all legs and main body are taken as a criterion for the
robot stability. This moment is calculated as
Figure 10. The comparison between the proposed algorithm
and the COG path generation method presented in 
 
Kalakrishnan et al.13. Mij ¼ eTij ðPG  Pi Þ  mP€ G þ mg

(a) (b) (c)

0.5 0.02 0.78
The Proposed Method
0.4 Method in [13] 0.01 0.76
0.3
0.00 0.74
X(m)

Y(m)

Z(m)

0.2
-0.01 0.72
0.1

0.0 -0.02 0.70

-0.1 -0.03 0.68

0.0 0.5 1.0 1.5 2.0 0.0 0.5 1.0 1.5 2.0 0.0 0.5 1.0 1.5 2.0
Time(sec) Time(sec) Time(sec)

(d) 0.6
0.5
0.4 Step2 Step 3
M(N.m)

0.3
0.2
0.1
0.0
-0.1
0.8 1.0 1.2 1.4 1.6 1.8 2.0
Time(sec)

Figure 11. Stick-figure illustration of the quadruped robot in the trot on the given terrain.

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Khorram and Moosavian 15

2
2.0

1 1.5

1.0
0
0.5
M 13(N.m)

M 24(N.m)
-1 0.0

-0.5
-2
-1.0
-3
-1.5

-4 -2.0
0 2 4 6 8 10 12 14 16 18 0 2 4 6 8 10 12 14 16 18
Time(sec) Time(sec)

Figure 12. The moment about the diagonal lines in the real robot (18 DOF).

n 
m X
X    are illustrated in Figure 13(c). With the definition of
þ PijG  Pi  mij P€ ijG þ mij g optimization problem, appropriate values for the roll
i¼1 j¼1 angle are selected so that the tumbling moment is
m X
X n  minimized. The comparison of three reduction meth-
 HG  HijG ð37Þ ods is shown in Table 2. As seen, first method is the
i¼1 j¼1 best among proposed methods. This is due to the fact
that the moment produced by the motion of the swing
In ideal situation, a robot with the massless legs, these legs because of the high accelerations for small swing
moments will be zero. However, in the real robot, all phase duration (i.e. 0.4 s) is a dominant factor in total
tumbling moments about diagonal lines are no longer values of moments. If swing phase duration increases,
zero. These tumbling moments are shown in the other methods show their merits in the reduction
Figure 12. As expected, these moments are not zero of tumbling moments. In the second method, the
and these moments may make the robot unstable design of news trajectory for swing legs, the moments
especially in the case in which the legs are relatively in the middle of each step decrease because the accel-
heavy. eration of the tip at those points becomes zero.

Reduction of the tumbling moments Experimental results

In the real robot, there is a tumbling moment about The quadruped robot is tested in the motion on a
the diagonal line, which may make the robot unstable. sloped terrain of 10 . The path data for main body
We can solve this problem in two levels: planning and and all legs are generated for the robot and are sent to
control. In the control level, these tumbling moments the motors with feed-forward controller. Since the
are taken as a disturbance and they should be com- motors are only position servo, it is expected that
pensated by the controller. This is not the focus of the joint position error be very small. The desired
present study. and the measured joint values for leg 1 are shown in
To decrease the tumbling moments and conse- Figure 14(a). As seen the errors are small and the
quently improve the robot stability in the planning robot follows its desired value. In addition, the
level, three methods are presented. The increase in desired and measured velocity of the joint of the leg
the duration of each step up to two times of its initial 1 are shown Figure 14(b). Since the motors only are
value is the first solution which is shown in the position servo, the desired and measured velocities
Figure 13(a). This causes the reduction of the robot are not the same. The snapshot of the robot in trotting
velocity. As seen, the tumbling moments are relatively a sloped terrain is shown in Figure 15. The COG path
small in this case. In another method, the change of obtained from vision measurement system is shown in
the swing legs trajectory is used to alleviate the tum- Figure 16.
bling moments. In the new trajectory, a constant vel- The experimental results prove that the robot can
ocity path is generated. The tumbling moments for trot on an uneven terrain with the proposed algo-
this case are depicted in Figure 13(b). As seen, the rithm. In fact, the robot can change its height over
tumbling moments in the middle of each step reduce these terrains stably. The efficiency of using of a point
because the acceleration of the feet becomes zero. The mass model instead of whole body robot is estab-
last method to improve the robot stability is the lished. Using this model allows us to generate a
adjustment of the roll angle of main body. The results stable path for a complicated model only using a

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16 Proc IMechE Part C: J Mechanical Engineering Science 0(0)

(a) 0.6 0.4

0.4
0.2
0.2

0.0 0.0
M13(N.m)

M 24(N.m)
-0.2
-0.2
-0.4

-0.6 -0.4
-0.8
-0.6
-1.0

-1.2 -0.8
0 5 10 15 20 25 30 35 0 5 10 15 20 25 30 35
Time(sec) Time(sec)

(b) 4 2

3
1
2

1
M 13(N.m)

0
M24(N.m)

-1 -1

-2
-2
-3 The poroposed swing trajectory
A New swing trajectory

-4 -3
0 2 4 6 8 10 12 14 16 18 0 2 4 6 8 10 12 14 16 18
Time(sec) Time(sec)

(c) 3 2

2
1
1

0
M 13(N.m)

M 24(N.m)

-1
-1

-2
-2
-3 With the adjusment of roll With the adjusment of roll
No adjusment of roll No adjusment of roll

-4 -3
0 2 4 6 8 10 12 14 16 18 0 2 4 6 8 10 12 14 16 18
Time(sec) Time(sec)

Figure 13. The reduction of the tumbling moments by various methods, (a) the increase in the duration of a step, (b) the design of a
better trajectory for swing legs, and (c) the adjustment of the role angle of main body.

Table 2. The comparison between the tumbling moment reduction methods.

Standard division (STD) Mean value The maximum of absolute

Methods M13 M24 M13 M24 M13 M24

Main method 0.2897 0.2801 0.0809 0.0197 3.1206 1.6440

The increase in the duration of a step 0.1097 0.0925 0.0647 0.0065 0.9361 0.5978
The design of a better trajectory for swing legs 0.3461 0.3500 0.0693 0.0094 3.4657 2.5948
The adjustment of the roll angle of main body 0.2809 0.3005 0.0044 0.0254 1.8399 2.2211

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Khorram and Moosavian 17

(a) 0.35 3.1 -1.0

0.30 3.0 -1.2

0.25 2.9 -1.4

q11(rad)

q12(rad)

q13(rad)
0.20 2.8 -1.6

0.15 2.7 -1.8

0.10 2.6 -2.0

0.05 2.5 -2.2

0 5 10 15 20 25 30 35 0 5 10 15 20 25 30 35 0 5 10 15 20 25 30 35
Time(sec) Time(sec) Time(sec)

(b) 0.4 2 5
0.3 4
1
0.2
qdot11(rad/sec)

qdot12(rad/sec)

qdot13(rad/sec)
3
0.1 0
2
0.0 -1
1
-0.1
-2 0
-0.2
-0.3 -3 -1
0 5 10 15 20 25 30 35 0 5 10 15 20 25 30 35 0 5 10 15 20 25 30 35
Time(sec) Time(sec) Time(sec)

Figure 14. The experimental results in trotting over a sloped terrain for several gaits. The blue line corresponds to the measured
data and the red line indicates the desired value, (a) the angle of all joints of the leg 1 and (b) the velocity of all joints of the leg 1.

Figure 15. The snapshot of the robot in moving on a sloped terrain.

simple model, which its main characteristic is less model and under sufficient friction assumption
computation time. between the tip of the stance legs and the ground,
the 3D ZMP was introduced. The reference ZMP
path was computed along three axes. Then, the
Conclusions
COG path was calculated by using an optimal control
The gait generation to enable a quadruped robot to approach based on the ZMP reference path. Finally,
trot on challenging terrains was investigated in this the swing leg path is defined so that the contact with
article. A main problem in the development of the environment is not occurred during the 3D motion.
trot gait on uneven terrains is the derivation of an To examine the performance of the proposed algo-
appropriate stability criterion to guarantee the robot rithm, an uneven terrain was modeled and the path
stability on such terrains. By taking a point–mass for the main body in three dimensions and also the

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18 Proc IMechE Part C: J Mechanical Engineering Science 0(0)

0.28

0.00 0.27

-0.01 0.26

-0.02
Ybody(m)

Zbody(m)
0.25

-0.03 0.24

-0.04 0.23

-0.05 0.22

-0.06 0.21
-0.05 0.00 0.05 0.10 0.15 0.20 0.25 0.30 0.35 -0.05 0.00 0.05 0.10 0.15 0.20 0.25 0.30 0.35
Xbody(m) Xbody(m)

Figure 16. The experimental results of COG path which are measured by using kinect device.

swing legs path were generated. Through comparing 5. Hardarson F. Stability analysis and synthesis of statically
with other COG path generation, the merits of the balanced walking for quadruped robots, PhD Thesis.
proposed algorithm were approved. Since this plan- Stockholm: Royal Institute of Technology, 2002.
ning approach is based on a point mass model of the 6. Liu F, Wu D and Chen K. The simplest creeping gait
robot, the tumbling moments for real robot are no for a quadruped robot. Proc IMechE, Part C: J
longer zero and they should be reduced. This can be Mechanical Engineering Science 2013; 227: 170–177.
done by various methods, such as increasing the dur- 7. Zamani A, Khorram M and Moosavian SAA.
ation of a step, or designing of a better trajectory for Dynamics and stable gait planning of a quadruped
the swing legs, and finally by the adjustment of the robot. In: Proceeding of International Conference on
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role angle of the main body. The obtained results
Gyeonggi-do, China, 26–29 October 2011, IEEE.
revealed the merits of the proposed planning algo-
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for a complicated 18 DOF quadruped robot moving International Conference on Mechatronics, Vicenza,
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Declaration of conflicting interests
10. Marhefka DW, Orin DE, Schmiedeler JP, et al.
The author(s) declared no potential conflicts of interest with Intelligent control of quadruped gallops. Mechatronics
respect to the research, authorship, and/or publication of IEEE/ASME Trans 2003; 8: 446–456.
this article. 11. Poulakakis I, Smith JA and Buehler M. On the
dynamics of bounding and extensions: Towards the
half-bound and gallop gaits. In: Kimura H, Ishiguro
Funding
A and Witte H (eds) Adaptive motion of animals and
The author(s) received no financial support for the research, machines, Springer-Verlag, Tokyo, 2006, pp.79–88.
authorship, and/or publication of this article. 12. Vukobratović M and Borovac B. Zero-moment
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