Virtual Model Control for Quadruped Robots

Virtual model control is a motion control framework that uses virtual components to create virtual forces/torques, which are actually generated by joint actuators when the virtual components interact with robot systems. Firstly, this paper employs virtual model control to do a dynamic balance control of whole body of quadruped robots' trot gait in a bottom controller. In each leg, there exists a designed swing phase virtual model control and a stance phase counterparts. In the whole body, virtual model control is utilized to achieve a attitude control containing roll, pitch and yaw. In the attitude control, a forces/torques distribution method between two stance legs is pre-investigated. In a high-level implemented controller, an intuitive velocity control approach proposed by Raibert is applied for the locomotion of quadruped robots. Secondly, an anti-disturbance control, which contains compensating gravity, adjusting step length, adjusting swing trajectory, adjusting attitude, and adjusting virtual forces/torques, is investigated to improve the robustness, terrain adaptability, and dynamic balance performance of quadrupedal locomotion. Thirdly, a trajectory tracking control method based on an intuitive velocity control is addressed through considering four factors: terrain complexity index, curvature radius of given trajectory, distance to terminal, and maximum velocity of quadruped robots. Finally, simulations validate the effectiveness of proposed controllers.