Abstract
In contrast to the high adaptivity of quadruped animals in many environmental conditions, it is hard for conventional quadruped robots to behave in complex environment conditions. In this paper, for the purpose of investigating the adaptivity possessed by animals' musculo-skeletal system, we built a bio-inspired quadruped robot named "Pneupard" that duplicates a feline musculo-skeletal system of hindlimbs and has 16 pneumatic muscles and 6 DOF. We proposed a sole reflex-based control and verified its effectivity by conducting a walking experiment, in which the robot performed a stable walking with a two dimentional restriction. In addition, we conducted another experiment, finding that the robot with the proposed control could walk stably on irregular terrain.
