Introducing the Carpal-Claw: a Mechanism to Enhance High-Obstacle Negotiation for Quadruped Robots

The capability of a quadruped robot to negotiate obstacles is tightly connected to its leg workspace and joint torque limits. When facing terrain where the height of obstacles is close to the leg length, the locomotion robustness and safety are reduced since more dynamic motions are required to traverse it. In this paper, we introduce a new mechanism called the Carpal-Claw, which enables quadruped robots to negotiate higher obstacles and adds safety to the locomotion by allowing the robot to negotiate obstacles under static and quasi-static locomotion and regular joint torque demands. The design of the mechanism is detailed, as well as the methodology to exploit the mechanism in the locomotion control framework. The Carpal-Claw functionality is validated through various experiments on a very high obstacle and stairs-like terrains using an Aliengo robot. We demonstrate how Aliengo can safely descend a step height of 40cm, which is 80% of its leg length. To the best knowledge of the authors, this is the first time a mechanism like the C-Claw is proposed for improving quadruped robot locomotion over high obstacles.