We have made a simple simulation of our quadruped in the open source robotics simulator V-REP. This simulation includes realistic leg, body, and motor masses based on the Lego prototype that we made. The springs on the legs were simulated as a prismatic joints with position control enabled to regulate the force according to a proportional parameter. In this simulation a simple bounding gait was selected where a sinusoidal input was applied at hips , or a gait where pairs of legs in the front and hind move together, was selected. In this gait, the hip actuators were made to follow a sinusoidal oscillation and a phase shift was applied at the rear hind legs. The amplitude, frequency, and phase difference between the front and hind legs was made to be adjustable through a slider control. The goal of this simple simulation was to verify that turning could be attained by decreasing the amplitude of leg motion on one side of the robot and increasing it on the other. Previous work by Iida et. al, that this project is based on, did not consider turning behavior. Work done with the Scout II robot indicated that turning with a bounding gait could be attained by increasing and decreasing torque applied to legs on opposite sides of the body. However, Scout II used different legs than the current design and Scout II used torque control instead of position control, as is the case when linkages are used. Thus verification was needed to determine if turning was possible. This turned out to work, however, at extreme amplitudes the robot became unstable and flipped over.
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