© 2019, IJCSE All Rights Reserved 135 International Journal of Computer Sciences and Engineering Open Access Research Paper Vol.-7, Issue-2, Feb 2019 E-ISSN: 2347-2693 Design and Development of A Four Legged Robotic Horse R. Chutia 1* , S. Sharma 2 , R. Kaushik 3 , B.P. Tasa 4 Dept. of Electronics and Communication Engineering, Tezpur University, Tezpur-784028, Assam, India * Corresponding Author: rikuchutia@yahoo.co.in, Tel.: +91-3712-275260 DOI: https://doi.org/10.26438/ijcse/v7i2.135139 | Available online at: www.ijcseonline.org Accepted: 14/Feb/2019, Published: 28/Feb/2019 Abstract— In this world, where human beings and the other animals have access to every nook and corner, the existing wheeled vehicles are far behind. In this paper we present the design and development of a four legged walking robotic horse. The main vision of our work is to represent the four legged robotic horse prototype that can serve in much larger range of environment and most difficult terrain, where the wheeled vehicle fails. The design of the robotic horse is bio inspired and is analogous to the biological horse. Prior to the development of the quadruped robot, the gait pattern of a horse with walk, trot and gallop styles are analyzed. A robotic prototype with gait patterns walk, trot and gallop similar to its biological counterpart, has been developed which is actuated by servomotors and controlled by microcontrollers. This paper presents the various analysis of the gait patters and development of the robotic prototype. Keywords— Quadruped robot, walk, trot, gallop, legged robot, robotic horse I. INTRODUCTION Locomotion has been an area of research since the advent of modern engineering. Although wheel based system dominates majority of locomotion system, researchers in the field of robot locomotion, led to the conclusion that the principles involved in natural legged locomotion system result in superior mobility characteristics due to its easy access to irregular terrain [1]. Creating effective motion in a four legged robot is not an easy task. Legged robots can be classified as dynamic and static. Gregorio and et al. described the one legged robot, the ARL Monopod and claims to be one of the fastest electrically actuated robot of the time with a speed of 4.3km/h [2]. Research in the field of quadruped locomotion started as early as in the fourth century, when a four legged wooden structure was developed to carry goods. A four legged walking robot called BISAM which offers the flexibility of both reptile and mammal like walking with one mechanical concept, was designed by Berns et al. [3]. Phoney pony described in [4] is regarded as one of the earliest quadruped’s realized. The contribution of Boston Dynamics in the field of development of robot is worth mentioning. They have developed a series of laboratory robots including monopods, bipeds, quadrupeds that moved dynamically with good balance in the 1980s and 1990s.Boston Dynamics Big Dog is a benchmark in the history of development of rough terrain quadruped robot. Designed with sophisticated computing, terrain sensors and highly energy efficient power system, the Big Dog has the capability to capture the mobility, autonomy and speed of living creatures. The history of the development of the Big Dog, its physical structure along with various functions performed by it is presented in [5]. A simple quadruped design featuring one degree of freedom per leg that can walk, climb and run despite its mechanical simplicity is described in [6]. Each hip is actuated by servo motors, and mechanical switches are used to detect the ground contact. They aimed at developing a simple, low cost, mechanically robust system with rich set of behaviors as walking, climbing staircase, running etc. Inspired from the works of the great researchers, a step has been taken to design a quadruped robot that can perform all gait pattern as its biological counterpart. A prototype of the same is designed that replicates the gait pattern of a real horse and results presented. II. METHODOLOGY Gait is the rhythmic characteristic movement of horses’ feet and legs in motion. There are three natural gaits namely walk, trot and gallop [7-8]. The walk is a slow, natural, flat footed, four beat gait. The sequence of the hoof beats after the horse is in motion can be described as: right fore, left fore, right rear and left rear. The trot is a rapid two beat diagonal gait. The fore foot on one side and the opposite hind foot take off and strike the ground at the same time. The four beat gallop is the fastest of all the paces. Unlike walk and trot, gallop is an asymmetric gait pattern.