Design and Kinematics Analysis of a Novel Quadruped Climbing Robot with Gripper

Robots have a wide range of requirements in space station operation missions. Conventional pole-climbing robots are difficult to operate in space, so it is a great challenge to enable robots to climb and operate in the space station. In this paper, a novel quadruped robot with series-parallel hybrid connecting leg features with four active degrees of freedom and two passive degrees of freedom is proposed. Firstly, the design scheme of the robot’s legs and gripper is described in detail, and the kinematic model of the robot’s legs and body and the static force model of the gripper claw are established. Secondly, a targeted trajectory planning strategy based on kinematic models is proposed. Based on the special requirements of the robot in space, the planning trajectories of the body and legs are designed. The validity of the kinematic model is verified through computation and simulation, and the effectiveness of the trajectory planning strategy is demonstrated.