In this study, a feasibility study on the stability of quadrupedal gait patterns with changeable body stiffness is reported. The periodic motions of the legs are generated as a rhythmic motion. The stability of locomotion strongly depends on the mechanical properties of the body mechanism, visco-elastic property of the the trunk. In this report, the muscle tone of the robot motion at the trunk is changeable by using the changeable visco-elasticity of the pneumatic actuators. The stability of quadruped locomotion in crawl, trot and pace patterns with changeable body’s visco-elasticity was evaluated with hardware experiments. And the stabilization mechanism is approximated by a simple two-inertia system model and analyzed with numerical simulations.

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