To enable quadruped robot to walk through unknown rough terrains without any machine vision system, a continuous static gait planning method is proposed in this paper. A algorithm for on-line terrain complexity evaluation according to touchdown times of swing feet is presented to make quadruped robot obtain the information of terrain without relying on machine vision system. Quadruped robot can obtain enough stability margin during walking process by using the proposed body trajectory planning method, and motion continuity of body can be guaranteed. In order to improve the terrain adaptability of quadruped robot, a tunable parameter is set in the body planning method, and the relationship between value of the tunable parameter and terrain complexity estimation is given to further improve terrain adaptability and energy utilization rate. With the proposed static gait generation method, quadruped robot can autonomous plan its static gait in real-time and travel over unknown rough terrains with enough stability margin. The simulation results show the correctness and effectiveness of the proposed method.

The hydraulic servo actuator with passive compliance (HPCA) is designed for hydraulically-driven quadruped robots. It is characterized by an accumulator that connects to the piston chamber of the hydraulic cylinder to buffer impact forces between a robot’s feet and the ground. This paper studies the energy efficiency of this actuator in the dynamic locomotion of a quadruped robot. Different from the traditional methods of storing potentially recyclable energy using accumulators, the energy-saving principle of HPCA is to utilize the pressure-transition characteristics of the asymmetric hydraulic cylinder with control of the symmetrical valve. The accumulator can store and release oil during the switching of the transition point in each gait cycle of the robot, thereby improving the energy efficiency of the actuator. The influence of the initial inflation pressure and working volume of the accumulator on the energy efficiency of the HPCA is studied by simulation and physical experiments. The results show that the HPCA has a higher energy efficiency that is independent of the physical parameters of the accumulator.

A hydraulic servo actuator with passive compliance (HPCA) is designed for hydraulic actuated quadruped robots, aiming to solve the response discrepancy of the low-bandwidth servo valve to impact forces between robot’s feet and the ground. This paper focuses on the performance of this passive compliance method combined with an active compliance control strategy when used on quadruped robots. First, the frequency-response characteristics of the HPCA are further discussed. Then, combined with the requirements of the quadruped robot, a compliant method characterized by incorporating dynamic feedforward control and joint angle feedback control items into the virtual model is proposed. Finally, both the new algorithm and the performance of the HPCA are verified by simulation and experiment. The results demonstrate that, compared with the original actuator, the frequency-response characteristics of the HPCA have better adaptability for the quadruped robot, while the efficiency of the active compliance control is also improved by this novel passive compliance strategy.

A novel hollow shell-and-tube heat exchanger with helical elastic coiled tubes was designed to improve the overall heat transfer performance. Different numbers of helical baffles installed on the hollow helical elastic tubes (HHETs) heat exchanger were compared with the HHET heat exchanger without a baffle. The fluid–solid coupling method was provided to study the effects of the entrance velocity and baffle number on the performances of heat transfer and vibration-enhanced heat transfer. Based on the numerical results, the performances of vibration and heat transfer become more obvious by increasing the entrance velocity. Compared with the HHET heat exchanger without a baffle, adding a baffle or baffles on the HHET heat exchanger can remarkably make the fluid flow more consistent. Whereas a higher number of baffles can weaken the vibration and heat transfer performance of the novel heat exchange, the performance evaluation criteria of the HHET heat exchanger with one baffle, two baffles, and four baffles is improved by 2.04, 4.37, and 2.3%, respectively. It indicates that adding a baffle or baffles to the novel heat exchanger can effectively improve the overall thermal and hydraulic characteristics of the novel heat exchanger.