Construction of a quadruped with reduced degrees of freedom

In general a quadruped has 3 degrees of freedom for each leg, for a total of 12 degrees of freedom. Therefore the mechanism for actuating the leg and control system becomes extremely heavy. This paper describes a new design of a quadruped with 4 degrees of freedom. Arrangement of the degrees of freedom and the principle of walking motion are first explained. Then, verification by a mechanical model is described.