ROS-BASED CONTROL OF A ROBOTIC LEG FOR A QUADRUPED ROBOT

The sector of Autonomous Mobile Robots (AMR) has grown a lot during the last years. In the literature an AMR is a robot able to move without any human operator control. With the improvements of the control systems, robots have gained a lot of dexterity and flexibility in the movements, migrating from restrictive mechanical systems like wheeling. AMR with wheels are very efficient on plane grounds, like conventional industrial environments. Nevertheless, they lose efficiency when dealing with rough terrains like the ones you can find on mountain rescue, vineyards or building industry. Agood alternative is to use legged robots, which imitate animal walking behaviour, for these types of terrain since they are able to easily overcome these obstacles. The objective of this project is to create a control system for the robotic leg of a quadruped robot. A mechanical leg was developed and implemented at the CDEI - UPC for a quadruped robot, aimed for its locomotion in rugged and unknown terrain. This project will create the control system for this leg, so that it can execute the desired motions and it can be later integrated in the complete quadruped robot. The system will be designed so that it can be part of the stack of the quadruped robot. In this sense, the control systems software will be developed using the Robot Operating System (ROS) and MATLAB&Simulink.