FORCE DISTRIBUTION FOR THE LEGS OF A QUADRUPED WALKING VEHICLE

For a walking vehicle with active force control an important problem i s how to distribute the forces of the feet. To prevent leg slippage, t he active force control of a walking vehicle requires an efficient app roach to optimize the foot force distribution. This article presents a new optimization method for a quadruped walking vehicle. We combine t he force/moment equilibrium equations with some optimal relations and obtain a set of solvable linear equations. The solution of the equatio ns is the optimal force distribution to prevent leg slippage. To solve the discontinuity problem of optimal solutions, we have used the prin ciple of the convex combination that is an interpolation. Thus the opt imal solution found with this algorithm is continuous during a complet e locomotion cycle. To solve the force distribution problem for four f eet on the ground the maximum computing time is 26 ms on an IBM-compat ible DX 80386+803787 only. This optimization method is quite efficient for the controller in real time. (C) 1997 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.