This paper presents the basic design of a walking robot platform, in terms of its mechanics,electronics and control. The four-legged robot weighs about 60 kilograms, has three actuatorsin each leg and uses a distributed control system over six CAN busses. Basic strength and speedis demonstrated by experiments where the robot performs walking motions and goes down onits knees and then up again. A brief discussion of experiences from designing and implementingthe platform is included.
This paper presents a method to adapt the foot reference trajectory offsets in order to improvea specific trotting gait. The trot gait used, is expected to have each leg on ground the sameamount of time and the adaptation offsets the supporting diagonals of the feet to minimize thedifferences in time. The controller is thus indirectly controlling the centre of mass position withrespect to the support without an explicit measure of the actual position of the centre of mass.The functionality of the controller is verified by experiments: trotting in place and trotting up aslope.