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Publication

Benefits of an Actuated Spine in Agile Quadruped Locomotion

N. Bohlinger; D. Tateo; P. Kicki; K. Walas; Jan Peters
In: ICRA 2024 Workshop on Bio-inspired Robotics and Robotics for Biology. IEEE International Conference on Robotics and Automation (ICRA), IEEE, 2024.

Abstract

The spine plays a crucial role in the dynamic locomotion of quadrupedal animals, improving the stability, speed, and efficiency of their gait, especially for fast-paced and highly agile movements [1], [2]. Therefore, the spine is also a promising and natural way to extend the capabilities of quadruped robots [3], [4], [5], [6]. This paper investigates the benefits of an actuated spine for learning agile quadruped locomotion in high-speed running and climbing scenarios with the Silver Badger robot from MAB Robotics with a 1-DOF spine in the sagittal plane.