This paper introduces a way to systematically investigate the effect of compliant prismatic spines in quadrupedal robot locomotion. We develop a novel spring-loaded lockable spine module, together with a new Spinal Compliance-Integrated Quadruped (SCIQ) platform for both empirical and numerical research. Individual spine tests reveal beneficial spinal characteristics like a degressive spring, and validate the efficacy of a proposed compact locking/unlocking mechanism for the spine. Benchmark vertical jumping and landing tests with our robot show comparable jumping performance between the rigid and compliant spines. An observed advantage of the compliant spine module is that it can alleviate more challenging landing conditions by absorbing impact energy and dissipating the remainder via feet slipping through much in cat-like stretching fashion.
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