Mechanical design of a quadruped robot

This thesis presents the mechanical design and fabrication of the Super Mini Cheetah (SMC) robot, a small ( 9kg) quadruped that is capable of jumping, bounding and trotting. The robot is designed using commercially available components and rapid prototyping methods, resulting in a low-cost, replicable and modifiable platform capable of force, position, or impedance control of each limb. The mechanical system consists of an aluminum torso frame and 3D printed legs. The design of the legs is based on kinematic calculations which determined the lengths of the linkages, force generating capability and the available workspace. The detailed design of the leg components was determined by estimating of the loading conditions required for dynamic locomotion. The design of the mechanical system was refined using FEA and bench level calculations. This thesis documents drop tests and hopping experiments that were performed with the first quadruped prototype.

Department dc:contributor.department

Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Department of Mechanical Engineering.

Grantor dc:publisher

Massachusetts Institute of Technology

Year dc:date.issued

2015

Author dc:creator

• Ajilo, Deborah (Deborah M.)

Advisor dc:contributor.advisor

• Sangbae Kim.

• Mechanical Engineering.

Statement dc:rights

• M.I.T. theses are protected by copyright. They may be viewed from this source for any purpose, but reproduction or distribution in any format is prohibited without written permission. See provided URL for inquiries about permission.

Licence dc:rights.uri

• http://dspace.mit.edu/handle/1721.1/7582

Language dc:language.iso

eng

Handle dc:identifier.uri

http://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/98948

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:dspace.mit.edu:1721.1/98948