與輪型機器人相較，步行機器人在崎嶇地形移動上有較多的優勢，例如步行機器人可以比輪型機器人有更多維持平衡的機制。相對的，在設計層面或是製造層面上步行機器人也都比輪型機器人來得困難，而「步態」(Gait) 的設計就是步行機器人特有的重要因素。步行機器人的移動是根據多個步態所定義的，任何一個錯誤的步態都有可能使步行機器人的動作不如預期，甚至跌倒，所以如何產生出一個穩定的步態是值得去研究和探討的。
在過去，如果一個四足步行機器人想要在直行步態下做行進間轉彎，它需要改變其步伐以完成轉彎的動作，然而在自然界中很少有生物會去更改步伐以進行轉彎。在本篇論文中，我們使用了汽車迴轉時的一個基本理論－阿克曼原理，發展出Ackerman Quadruped Gait(AQ-Gait) 演算法，在給定迴轉半徑與每步的迴轉徑度下，可以維持直行的步伐並自動生成四足步態進行平穩的迴轉。論文並透過Webots 機器人模擬器驗證四足機器人確實可在維持身體平衡的狀況下走出圓形軌跡。

Compared with wheeled robots, walking robots have more advantages to traverse
irregular terrain. However, the latter have more difficulties than the former on designing and manufacturing complexity. "Gait" is the biggest distinctness between wheeled and walking robots. The moving progress of a walking robot is composed by many gaits. A wrong gait might cause the robot falls down and fails to work well, so how to make a stable gait is critical issue to robot design and research.
In the past, if a walking robot needs to make a turn while walking the straight line,it must change its footfall sequence to do this. However, few creatures purposely change their walking pattern for turning. In this thesis, an algorithm named Ackerman Quadruped Gait (AQ-Gait) is developed, upon the base of the Ackerman principle, to generate the required gate for any given turning center and turning radius per step. The advantages of AQ-Gait include that the generated gait shares the same footfall sequence with that of straight gaits and the body of robot is stable during the process of turning. Experiments are performed on the Webots robot simulator and the candidate quadruped robot does walk round trajectories with only minor swinging.

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