This week Addtronics has been pertinaciously working on advancements on every aspect of the quadruped project and we are very excited to share our substantial progress.

Firstly, we started our week off strong by successfully finishing our preliminary design report (PDR) and preliminary design report presentation. The report itself contained detailed information about the development of our product so far like concept generation tables, technical performance specifications, diagrams, completed items, upcoming tasks, and project goals. The presentation gave an overview of this information and a broad description of the problem statement that our project hopes to solve. Our team was very united for this presentation, color coordinating our business casual outfits by wearing black (not pictured but refer to Back In Black – AC/DC playing in the back of the following video). Most of all, we had a fun time sharing our current progress with everyone and we rocked it!

Now for the part you’ve all been waiting for…. testing updates! This week we were able to meet with the company who created the quadruped and have their input as we worked on controlling the quadruped from a laptop using ROS commands rather than the given controller. In the video below, we are able to send basic commands and control quadruped motions like crouching and rotation in all directions. This gives us a good foundation for efficiently controlling the robot through an external interface and how it can be improved.

We continued testing by having a quadruped payload test where we tested how much weight the quadruped was able to carry. This will help us determine if the quadruped can hold the weight of the arm while still functioning adequately, how much strength the quadruped is able to lift, and an ergonomic position where the payload is maximized. After trying different weight distributions and lifting configurations, we determined that the payload was maximized by beginning lifting from the crouch position when the weight was centered. In this condition, we tested the quadrupeds movement once it had lifted the weight, reaching a maximum weight of 30 lbs adequately.

In preparation for next week, we will review and edit our PDR presentation and present it to our sponsor. In preparation for arm payload testing, we have done an ergonomic lifting analysis of the arm and have determined the most essential factor to consider is the center of gravity offset in the configuration the arm is lifting. In order to maximize payload, we need to minimize center of gravity offset as much as possible. These initial steps give us a good idea of what to expect and be efficient in our arm payload testing.