TY - BOOK AU - Khan, Zainullah AU - Supervisor: Dr. Khawaja Fahad Iqbal TI - Gait Generation for a Quadrupedal Robot: Zainullah Khan U1 - 629.8 PY - 2024/// CY - Islamabad : PB - SMME- NUST; KW - MS Robotics and Intelligent Machine Engineering N1 - Quadrupedal robots have gained significant research interest due to their ability to achieve agile and stable locomotion over complex terrains. Such locomotion can be achieved by combining various gaits, however, simply changing robot gaits does not guarantee robust and stable behavior. To ensure stable robot locomotion, gaits must be seamlessly blended. Current methods of gait transition include model-based, mainly Model Predictive Control (MPC), approaches, which are limited by the use of handengineered gaits; Reinforcement Learning (RL)-based methods, which address these limitations but require extensive training; and hybrid methods that combine multiple controllers but still experience abrupt gait timing changes. This thesis introduces a novel RL-MPC hybrid control framework that addresses the controllers’ shortcomings in the current literature. The proposed controller incorporates a feature extractor module that extracts features from the robot terrain and state. The novel framework also introduces a gait timing correction step to smooth out gait transitions. The proposed framework was tested on a randomly generated rough terrain, where the robot efficiently traversed and transitioned between gaits while maintaining accurate command velocity. Testing the effectiveness of the contact timing correction step revealed that the locomotion produced by the controller without contact timing correction was jerky and unstable on rough terrain. The proposed framework also outperforms a state-of-the-art method in gait transitioning, resulting in smoother and more stable locomotion UR - http://10.250.8.41:8080/xmlui/handle/123456789/48105 ER -