Modeling of a Quadruped Robot with Spine Joints and Full-Dynamics Simulation Environment Construction

This paper presents modeling and simulation of a spined quadruped robot. Extended literature survey is employed and spine joints researches of the quadruped robots are classified. Most of the researchers execute simplified quadruped robot models in their simulations. This survey reveals the need for the full-body spined quadruped simulation environment. First, the kinematics and dynamics modeling of the active spined quadruped robot is obtained. Since quadruped robots are floating-base robots, all derivations are performed with respect to an inertial frame. The motion equations are acquired by the Lagrangian approach. The simulation environment is constructed in the MATLAB/Simulink platform, considering its rich library, powerful solvers, and suitable and resilient environment in integrating controllers. The computation speed of the simulation environment is increased by using optimized MATLAB functions. Precise and accurate contact model is utilized in the simulation environment. We foreseen that the provided full-dynamics simulation environment will be helpful for further spine joint studies on the quadruped robot field.