Organizations: Department of Systems Innovation, Graduate School of Engineering Science, The University of Osaka, 1-3 Machikaneyama, Toyonaka, Osaka, Japan. · Industrial Cyber-physical Systems Research Center, The National Institute of Advanced Industrial Science and Technology (AIST), 2-3-26 Aomi, Koto-ku, Tokyo, Japan.
While modular robots offer versatility, excessive joint torque during locomotion poses a significant risk of mechanical failure, especially for detachable joints. To address this, we propose an optimization framework using the NSGA-III algorithm. Unlike conventional approaches that prioritize mobility alone, our method derives Pareto optimal solutions to minimize joint load while maintaining necessary locomotion speed and stability. Simulations and physical experiments demonstrate that our approach successfully generates gait motions for diverse environments, such as slopes and steps, ensuring structural integrity without compromising overall mobility.
Figures & tables
Fig. 1 : Overview of the proposed multi-objective gait generation framework balancing locomotion speed, stability, and joint load.
Fig. 2 : Hardware configuration including the simple detachable joint and link structure.
Fig. 3 : Fully assembled 4-legged and 6-legged physical robots.
Fig. 5 : Comparison of locomotion motions with and without joint load consideration for the 6-legged tetrapod gait on flat terrain.
Fig. 6 : Comparison of the acquired Pareto-optimal fronts on flat terrain. (a) The tetrapod gait achieves successful locomotion with widely distributed positive stability. (b) The wave gait fails as solutions converge in the negative stability region.
FZI Research Center for Information Technology, Karlsruhe, Germany · Machine Intelligence and Robotics Lab (MaiRo), Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (KIT), Karlsruhe, Germany