Robohub.org
 

Simulated pronking robots move like springboks


by
14 February 2011



share this:

If you’ve never seen a video of springboks gracefully pronking, have a look below.



Pronking is a gait where all legs are used in synchrony, usually resulting in relatively slow speeds but long flight phases and large jumping heights. Such jumps might be interesting for robots to move around in cluttered environments. The risk is that the robot falls forward or backward if not controlled correctly (pitch control).

For this purpose, Ankaralı et al. propose a special type of feedback controller that has two levels. The top-level takes as an input the desired speed and jump height of the robot. This information is given to a “template” of the robot motion based on the “Spring-Loaded Inverted Pendulum”. A low-level controller then attempts to force the dynamics of the robot to mimic the template as closely as possible.



Experiments were done in simulation on a realistic model of the RHex six-legged robot (see video above). Results show that the user can easily control jump height and forward speed and that the gait is robust to sensor and actuator noise.




Sabine Hauert is President of Robohub and Associate Professor at the Bristol Robotics Laboratory
Sabine Hauert is President of Robohub and Associate Professor at the Bristol Robotics Laboratory





Related posts :



Livestream of RoboCup2025

  18 Jul 2025
Watch the competition live from Salvador!

Tackling the 3D Simulation League: an interview with Klaus Dorer and Stefan Glaser

and   15 Jul 2025
With RoboCup2025 starting today, we found out more about the 3D simulation league, and the new simulator they have in the works.

An interview with Nicolai Ommer: the RoboCupSoccer Small Size League

and   01 Jul 2025
We caught up with Nicolai to find out more about the Small Size League, how the auto referees work, and how teams use AI.

RoboCupRescue: an interview with Adam Jacoff

and   25 Jun 2025
Find out what's new in the RoboCupRescue League this year.

Robot Talk Episode 126 – Why are we building humanoid robots?

  20 Jun 2025
In this special live recording at Imperial College London, Claire chatted to Ben Russell, Maryam Banitalebi Dehkordi, and Petar Kormushev about humanoid robotics.

Gearing up for RoboCupJunior: Interview with Ana Patrícia Magalhães

and   18 Jun 2025
We hear from the organiser of RoboCupJunior 2025 and find out how the preparations are going for the event.

Robot Talk Episode 125 – Chatting with robots, with Gabriel Skantze

  13 Jun 2025
In the latest episode of the Robot Talk podcast, Claire chatted to Gabriel Skantze from KTH Royal Institute of Technology about having natural face-to-face conversations with robots.

Preparing for kick-off at RoboCup2025: an interview with General Chair Marco Simões

and   12 Jun 2025
We caught up with Marco to find out what exciting events are in store at this year's RoboCup.



 

Robohub is supported by:




Would you like to learn how to tell impactful stories about your robot or AI system?


scicomm
training the next generation of science communicators in robotics & AI


©2025.05 - Association for the Understanding of Artificial Intelligence


 












©2025.05 - Association for the Understanding of Artificial Intelligence