An actuated tail increases rapid acceleration manoeuvres in quadruped robots

Abstract

The cheetah (Acinonyx jubatus) is arguably one of the most manoeuvrable terrestrial animals. For future time-critical missions, legged robots will need to possess capabilities similar to the cheetah. In this paper, a rapid acceleration quadruped system is designed and is found to be limited in manoeuvrability. However, we show that by the addition of an actuated tail, a considerable increase in stride-averaged acceleration is obtained.