Actuation Mechanism and Control of Quadrupedal Robots: A Review

Quadrupedal robots have been an active research area since the 1980s due to their promising potential in rough terrain and real-world navigation compared with wheeled or tracked robots. While many reviews have been written in this field, they are mostly about specific sub-categories. This paper aims to provide a broad entry point for researchers to understand the main technologies of quadrupedal robots, and also gain insight on recent breakthroughs by discussing both the actuation design and control methods of quadrupedal robots. This paper also proposes some unique views on specific challenges this research field is facing, such as crowd navigation and simulation challenges.