research-article

Mini Cheetah: A Platform for Pushing the Limits of Dynamic Quadruped Control

Authors:

Jared Di Carlo,

Sangbae KimAuthors Info & Claims

2019 International Conference on Robotics and Automation (ICRA)

Pages 6295 - 6301

https://doi.org/10.1109/ICRA.2019.8793865

Published: 20 May 2019 Publication History

Abstract

Mini Cheetah is a small and inexpensive, yet powerful and mechanically robust quadruped robot, intended to enable rapid development of control systems for legged robots. The robot uses custom backdriveable modular actuators, which enable high-bandwidth force control, high force density, and robustness to impacts. Standing around 0.3 m tall and weighing 9 kg, Mini Cheetah can easily be handled by a single operator. We have demonstrated dynamic trot, trot-run, bounding, and pronking gaits on the robot to speeds of up to 2.45 meters per second using Convex Model-Predictive Control (cMPC). In addition to locomotion, we have used the robot to execute 360° backflips, with trajectories generated using offline nonlinear optimization.

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cover image Guide Proceedings

2019 International Conference on Robotics and Automation (ICRA)

May 2019

7095 pages

Copyright © 2019.

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IEEE Press

Publication History

Published: 20 May 2019

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Cited By

Klemm Vde Viragh YRohr DSiegwart RTognon M(2025)Nonsmooth Trajectory Optimization for Wheeled Balancing Robots With Contact Switches and ImpactsIEEE Transactions on Robotics10.1109/TRO.2023.332633441(497-517)Online publication date: 1-Jan-2025
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1109/TRO.2023.3326334
Huang SHauser KShell DMargolis GYang GPaigwar KChen TAgrawal P(2024)Rapid locomotion via reinforcement learningInternational Journal of Robotics Research10.1177/0278364923122405343:4(572-587)Online publication date: 1-Apr-2024
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1177/02783649231224053
Yoon ZKim JPark H(2024)Invariant Smoother for Legged Robot State Estimation With Dynamic Contact Event InformationIEEE Transactions on Robotics10.1109/TRO.2023.332820240(193-212)Online publication date: 1-Jan-2024
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Fahmi SBarasuol VEsteban DVillarreal OSemini C(2023)ViTAL: Vision-Based Terrain-Aware Locomotion for Legged RobotsIEEE Transactions on Robotics10.1109/TRO.2022.322295839:2(885-904)Online publication date: 1-Apr-2023
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Shu XNi FFan XYang SLiu CTu BLiu YLiu H(2023)A versatile humanoid robot platform for dexterous manipulation and human–robot collaborationCAAI Transactions on Intelligence Technology10.1049/cit2.122149:2(526-540)Online publication date: 5-Apr-2023
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Smith LKew JBin Peng XHa STan JLevine S(2022)Legged Robots that Keep on Learning: Fine-Tuning Locomotion Policies in the Real World2022 International Conference on Robotics and Automation (ICRA)10.1109/ICRA46639.2022.9812166(1593-1599)Online publication date: 23-May-2022
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