RESEARCH ARTICLE

Design and Control for WLR-3P: A Hydraulic

Wheel-Legged Robot Citation: Li X, Yu H, Feng H, Zhang S,
Xu Li1,2, Haoyang Yu1, Haibo Feng1, Songyuan Zhang1, and Yili Fu1,3* Fu Y. Design and Control for WLR-3P:
A Hydraulic Wheel-Legged Robot.
1
State Key Laboratory of Robotics and System, College of Mechatronics Engineering, Harbin Institute Cyborg Bionic Syst. 2023;4:Article
0025. https://doi.org/10.34133/
of Technology, Harbin 150001, China. 2State Key Laboratory of Fluid Power and Mechatronic Systems, cbsystems.0025
Zhejiang University, Hangzhou 310027, China. 3Intelligent Robot Research Center, Zhejiang Laboratory,
Submitted 7 September 2022
Hangzhou 311100, China. Accepted 30 March 2023
Published 8 June 2023
*Address correspondence to: meylfu@hit.edu.cn
Copyright © 2023 Xu Li et al.
Exclusive Licensee Beijing Institute of
The robot used for disaster rescue or field exploration requires the ability of fast moving on flat road and
Technology Press. No claim to original
adaptability on complex terrain. The hybrid wheel-legged robot (WLR-3P, prototype of the third-generation U.S. Government Works. Distributed
hydraulic wheel-legged robot) has the characteristics of fast and efficient mobility on flat surfaces and under a Creative Commons
high environmental adaptability on rough terrains. In this paper, 3 design requirements are proposed Attribution License 4.0 (CC BY 4.0).
to improve the mobility and environmental adaptability of the robot. To meet these 3 requirements, 2
design principles for each requirement are put forward. First, for light weight and low inertia with high
stiffness, 3-dimensional printing technology and lightweight material are adopted. Second, the integrated
hydraulically driven unit is used for high power density and fast response actuation. Third, the micro-
hydraulic power unit achieves power autonomy, adopting the hoseless design to strengthen the reliability
of the hydraulic system. What is more, the control system including hierarchical distributed electrical
system and control strategy is presented. The mobility and adaptability of WLR-3P are demonstrated with
a series of experiments. Finally, the robot can achieve a speed of 13.6 km/h and a jumping height of 0.2 m.

Introduction Why could hydraulics be a good choice

Before describing the details, we will briefly discuss why we chose
Background hydraulics as major driving mode. We believe that the hydraulic
As highlighted in 2015 DARPA Robotics Challenge [1], explo- actuation is suitable for legged robot platforms considering the
ration and rescue in dangerous environment are important following reasons: (a) high power-to-weight ratio, (b) excellent
applications for robotic legged locomotion, which remain impact resistance, (c) high-frequency response of force/position
unsolved, however. Dynamic legged robots are superior to control, and (d) human-comparable biological properties.
wheeled vehicles in terms of mobility on rough terrain. During Among the reasons above, items (a) and (b) are the main
the past decades, many bipedal robots [2–5] have been devel- reasons. The maximum power density of the knee joint hydrau-
oped with improved abilities of balancing, push recovery lically driven unit (HDU) in WLR-3P can reach about 7 kW/
and running, as well as capability of moving on irregular kg, which is far higher than that of traditional motors. Due to
terrain. Compared with wheeled and legged locomotion, the the fluidity of the oil, the hydraulic drive system should be able
multifunction, maneuverability, and speed of dynamically to share the hydraulic power output from the HPU. It is easy to
stabilized wheel-legged machines in continuous and smooth concentrate the hydraulic power to a certain HDU output so
terrain are still the preferred platforms. Leg provides better that it can achieve high power. It is difficult for electrohydrostatic
mobility in rough terrain, and wheel realizes fast movement actuation to generate instantaneous high power because of the
over a continuous path. Consequently, the combination of limited power of the motor [10]. Shock resistance and overload
wheels and legs enables the robot to adapt to almost all ter- protection are required by robots that work with humans or
rains. In the DRC [DARPA (Defense Advanced Research carry out rescue activities in disaster areas. Fluidic actuations
Projects Agency) Robot Challenge] finals, excellent results like hydraulics or pneumatics are of strong shock resistance due
have been achieved by the wheel-legged robots, and 4 of the to their intrinsic compliance.
5 best-placed teams chose to combine leg with wheeled loco- Item (c) should be the most attractive point for most legged
motion, which might indicate that this design approach has robot researchers. Hydraulic actuation ensures high enough
advantages in dealing with challenging tasks [6–9]. As shown actuator bandwidth to achieve satisfactory force/displacement
in Fig. 1, this paper systematically introduces the development control in the spectrum of high dynamic locomotion of legged
process and experimental results of WLR-3P, which is a typ- robots [11]. The force controllability, which is the basis of efficient
ical wheel leg compound motion robot by adding wheels at compliance behavior through natural and stiff actuation system,
the end of the legs. can be extended further by using advanced model-based control

Li et al. 2023 | https://doi.org/10.34133/cbsystems.0025 1

 and integrated design with cylinder, servo valve, and skeleton
[20]. This is also similar to the organic fusion of human blood
vessels and musculoskeletal. The hoseless design method inte-
grated with the structure is helpful to improve the heat dissipa-
tion efficiency, and the hydraulic power transmission efficiency
is increased also because of the shorter oil pipeline. The inte-
grated design reduces the sealing and the possibility of leakage.
Hyon et al. [19] used external hydraulic power supply and rub-
ber hoses to realize hydraulic power transmission between HPU
and HDUs. However, power autonomy is an essential condition
for robots to realize independent outdoor movement. It is very
difficult for a robot to integrate HPU, including miniaturization
of pump, motor or engine, and integration of various hydraulic
components. The solution proposed in this paper can solve this
problem well. Only with strong driving ability and powerful
actuation, the robot can obtain high dynamic motion ability.
We believe that hydraulic actuation is one of the best drives for
a legged robot in the future.

Related work
Inspired by Momaro [8], CENTAURO [21] as a wheel-legged
mobile manipulation platform can execute demanding manip-
ulation tasks and demonstrate substantial physical resilience.
Ascento [22] is a compact wheeled bipedal robot that is able to
move quickly on flat terrain and to overcome obstacles by jump-
Fig. 1. WLR-3P, a novel hoseless hydraulic wheel-legged robot that is capable of ing. Handle [23] is also a biped robot—but with wheels instead
jumping and fast-moving with the autonomous power. of feet, which combines the rough-terrain capability of legs with
the efficiency of wheels. Nevertheless, so far, there have been
no published papers concerning Boston Dynamics’ locomotion
framework and detailed designs of Handle. Through the above
methods [12]. Existing actuations meeting the stringent require-
motion characteristics of these robots, we can get that the driv-
ments (fast force response and precise position tracking actua-
ing wheel is designed to replace the foot at the end of the leg,
tion with high impact robustness) also includes the proprioceptive
which greatly improves the movement ability of the robots. Due
actuation [13] and the series elastic actuation (SEA) [14]. The
to its small footprint, bipedal wheel-legged robots have been
proprioceptive actuation implemented on MIT Cheetah [15] can
more extensively studied in recent years. Table 1 shows the main
perform tasks like high-speed running and jumping. Unfortunately,
parameters of several wheel-legged robots. It is not difficult to
the power density of electric motors is limited. Several state-of-
find that hydraulically driven wheel-legged robots have obvious
the-art robots like the humanoid Valkyrie [16] or the quadruped
advantages in terms of load capacity and explosive power.
Anymal [17] showed how to use SEA not only for precise output
In 2017, we developed the first hydraulic wheel-legged robot
force regulation but also for storing energy temporarily during
WLR-I [24], which successfully verified the integrated design
locomotion. However, SEA-equipped robots suffer from severe
and compound movement ability. Then, in 2018, we developed
latency and limited bandwidth. Additionally, in posture meas-
the second-generation wheel-legged robot (WLR-II [20]), which
urement of robots, high-speed locomotion will also produce
realized hoseless design for the first time and showed unex-
severe vibration and noise pollution [18].
pected terrain adaptability. As shown in Fig. 2, the first 2 gen-
Item (d) is considered as very suitable for the combination of
erations have verified the adaptability to complex terrain and
humanoid robots. Mechanically robust cylinders with single rod
the mobility on flat ground, but both are powered by the exter-
are very compact, and if the linkages are properly designed, they
nal pump station. Based on the design of the previous 2 gen-
can be well suited to driving the robotic locomotion and jump-
erations of wheel-legged robots, substantial improvements have
ing. The robot can readily obtain different torques and speeds
been made in WLR-3P. WLR-3P not only improves the motion
for different joints merely by changing the piston diameter size
ability but also realizes the power autonomy.
and the valve type [19]. Furthermore, the hydraulic fluid can also
serve as the lubricant and coolant of actuators. The flow charac-
teristics of hydraulic oil similar to human blood can transfer local Contributions
heat to the whole body of the robot, as well as transmits power The main contributions of this paper are as follows:
to each HDU, which is beneficial to the heat dissipation. 1. A hydraulic power autonomous wheel-legged robot sys-
Nevertheless, there are several shortcomings of a hydraulic tem with high mobility and high adaptability is developed. It is
system, such as leakage and radiate heat. Therefore, cooling is very difficult to integrate hydraulic power system inside the
particularly important when the servo valve-driven systems run robot, especially in the very narrow space of the bipedal wheel-
for a long time. How to transfer the hydraulic power of HPU to legged robot. The WLR-3P robot developed in this paper has
each actuator is another concerning problem. In the structure successfully integrated HPU and achieved rapid movement
of the robot, the hydraulic power transmission is realized by the and jumping motion, which provides substantial verification
hoseless hydraulic joints with flow path sealed by a rotary seal for the research and development of bipedal wheel-legged robot.

Li et al. 2023 | https://doi.org/10.34133/cbsystems.0025 2

 Table 1. Comparison of parameters of several wheel-legged robots.

Department Actuation Weight Height Maximum Maximum velocity Jump height

Robot
(kg) (m) load (kg) (m/s) (m)
Handle [23] Boston Dynamic Hydraulic 90 1.98 30 14.18 1.22
WLR-3P HIT Hydraulic 80 1.55 35 13.6 0.2
SDU-WLR [32] SDU Hydraulic 80 1.25 Unknown 3.6 -
Ascento [22] ETH Motor 10.4 0.66 Unknown 8 0.1
SR600 [33] HITsz Motor 14 0.6 Unknown 7.2 -
Ollie [34] Tencent X Motor 11.3 0.916 12 Unknown -
LGOR [35] HEBI Motor 17.5 1 Unknown 3.6 -
Diablo Direct drive tech Motor 22.9 0.49 4 7.2 0.14

2. Illustrates of the solution procedures for these issues with and results of hydraulic bipedal wheel-legged robot are summa-
basic templates such as actuator and transmission characteriza- rized from the experience of developing these hydraulically
tion, sensor design for impact, and leg morphology for a real driven robots, which provide a detailed technical reference for
machine. The hydraulically driven robot is a minority in the field peers.
of robotics, but its powerful explosive force and impact resist- 3. A novel hoseless design and a good technical guideline for
ance make it an excellent choice for high-performance motion building superior hydraulic wheel-legged robots were proposed.
robots. However, few papers report the detailed design methods One of the most difficult technologies in the development of
and specific parameters of the drive system and structure of the hydraulically driven robot is the integration design of complex
hydraulically driven robot. In this paper, the design methods hydraulic system and mechanical body. In this paper, the hoseless

Fig. 2. Left: WLR-I, the first-generation hydraulic wheel-legged robot, which was in joint motion test. Right: WLR-II, the second-generation hydraulic wheel-legged robot, which
was on snowfield moving test.

Li et al. 2023 | https://doi.org/10.34133/cbsystems.0025 3

design method of hydraulically driven robot is proposed. The leg are respectively on the hip joint, knee joint, and driving
hydraulic system and mechanical body are integrated through wheel, in which the hip and knee are driven by HDU and the
the oil joint, airborne HPU, and integrated HDUs, which improves driving wheel is driven by DC motor. HDU includes the cus-
the reliability and compactness of the system. tomized high-frequency response (20 Hz) servo cylinder, a
To the authors’ best knowledge, there is no relevant literature high-performance servo valve, a displacement sensor, and a
that fully covers these topics. The paper is organized as follows. force sensor. WLR-3P with an airborne HPU and batteries
The “Overview of the Novel Wheel-Legged Robot: WLR-3P” weighs 80 kg. Its maximum height is 1.55 m, and the distance
section addresses the characteristics and composition of WLR-3P. between the 2 wheels is about 0.54 m. Additionally, a 1.8-kg
The design principles and their implementation are introduced carbon fiber mixed with aluminum alloy frame is attached to
in the “Design Principles and Implementation” section. The the trunk for safety.
“Control System of WLR-3P” section shows the control system WLR-3P is a wheel-legged robotic platform that can be used
of WLR-3P. The “Experimental Results” section shows serial for high-speed motion, dynamic balance on the irregular ground,
experimental setups and results. Conclusions and future works and jump over obstacles. To obtain the flexibility for accomplish-
are given in the “Conclusions” section. ing different tasks, WLR-3P is designed with flexible mechanical
properties and adequate controllers. The main specifications of
Overview of the Novel Wheel-Legged WLR-3P are presented in Table 2.
Robot: WLR-3P
This section mainly introduces the overview of WLR-3P, as
Design Principles and Implementation
shown in Fig. 3. WLR-3P has 7 degrees of freedom (DOFs): 3 In this section, the design principles and their implementation
DOFs in each leg and 1 DOF in the waist. The 3 DOFs of the of WLR-3P are introduced, as shown in Fig. 4. WLR-3P is

Fig. 3. Component composition and dimensions of WLR-3P.

Li et al. 2023 | https://doi.org/10.34133/cbsystems.0025 4

 flow QL at valve orifice and supply pressure PS under zero load
PL = 0 can be expressed as QL = KQ PS , where KQ stands for
√
Table 2. Main specifications of WLR-3P.
flow proportional coefficient. The higher the value of PS, the
Mass 80 kg greater the amount QL can flow into the actuator from the
high-pressure line, resulting in higher speed. The maximum
Size Height, 1.55 m; width, 0.54 m
speed of expansion and contraction of piston can reach 0.643 m/s
DOFs 2 × leg (3), waist (1) and 1 m/s, respectively.
Actuation Hydraulic cylinder Reasonable design parameters should not only meet the
Power supply 7.5 kW HPU (internal) requirements of load and movement but also reduce the cost,
Pressure, 12 MPa (normal), 21 MPa (max) as well as improve the interchange capacity of standard parts
72 V lithium battery, 30 Ah and system maintainability. On top of that, for the design of
Controllers 32-bit QNX on PC/104 (onboard) HDU, the control requirements, displacement/speed feedback,
Intel Atom D525 (1.8 GHz, Dual-core) and force feedback are needed in force/position control. Therefore,
Actuator sensor LVDT, load cell, pressure sensor, incre-
each HDU integrated with a linear variable differential trans-
mental encoder
former (LVDT) is parallel to the piston rod for displacement/
speed feedback and a load sensor in coaxial series with the
piston. To improve the response speed and load stiffness of
HDU, the servo valve is installed near the hydraulic cylinder.

Transmission design for the joint

Objectives Requirements Implementation The traditional hydraulic robot joint drive uses the expansion
and contraction of cylinder and piston rod to directly drive the
joint rotation. The joint bearings are used at both ends of the
cylinder to compensate the mechanical eccentricity. The design
Mobility proposed in this paper is to integrate the cylinder with the skel-
eton and convert the linear motion of the piston rod into the
rotation of the joint through the crank slider mechanism.
The advantage of this design is that the piston rod only bears
the axial force, and the radial force caused by the joint rotation
Adaptability is borne by the linear guide rail, which greatly improves the
service life and reliability of the cylinder.
Figure 5 shows the transmission structure for the knee and
hip joints adopted in the final design. The piston makes a linear
reciprocating motion under the guidance of the linear guide
rail. The hip joint rotates under the push of 2-force bars lADhip.
Fig. 4. Mechanical design method for WLR-3P. The squat and jump motion require that the knee has large
torque and fast angular velocity. The rotation of the knee is
characterized by mobility on flat ground and strong adaptability transformed by a 4-bar linkage [25]. Reasonable size of the
on complex terrain. Based on these 2 objectives, this work pro- 4-bar link can realize the large range of knee rotation and the
posed 3 requirements for designing WLR-3P: (a) high power linear conversion of displacement angle. Figure 5 also shows
density and fast response actuation, (b) light weight and inertia the relationship between joint angle and cylinder displacement
with high strength, and (c) reliable hydraulic system. and moment arm length. The transmission mode of the waist
joint is similar to that of the hip joint.
High power density and fast response actuation Table 3 shows the detailed parameters of each joint. The max-
Integrative hydraulic drive unit imum torque of the joint is obtained by the product of the max-
In the design of HDU, the relation between cylinder/rod diam- imum load force of the cylinder and the maximum moment arm
eter and load, stroke and joint angle, servo valve flow, and joint length. The maximum load force of cylinder is obtained under
speed should be analyzed. Combined with (considering) the the rated pressure of 21 MPa. The maximum angular velocity is
experience of previous actuation design and the existing stand- obtained from the fastest speed of the cylinder. The torques and
ard parts size, a cylinder/rod diameter of 20/12 mm is adopted. velocities are evaluated at the maximum and minimum moment
The cylinder can exert a push force of 3,770 N and a pull force arm, respectively.
of 2,413 N. The values increase to 6,597 and 4,222 N, respec-
tively, at 21 MPa (3,000 lbf/in2). The stroke of the cylinder is HDU experiments
directly related to the range of joint angle. The range of joint WLR-3P knee and hip cylinders were taken as experimental
angle is also related to the size of the transmission mechanism, objects to verify the performance of HDU in no-load speed,
which needs to be considered comprehensively in the design displacement tracking, and force tracking.
process. The joint angular velocity is related to the flow rate of In the no-load speed test, the piston rod can move freely
the servo valve. According to the structure and weight require- without load. The system supply pressure is set at 7 MPa (rat-
ments, this work directly selects the Star 200 servo valve, which ing), 12 MPa (normal), and 21 MPa (maximum). The servo
weighs 230 g. Star Type 200 valve offers 7 l/min at 7 MPa pres- valve signal is switched back and forth between maximum
sure drop, with a frequency response of 130 Hz at −3 dB and current (+30 mA) and minimum current (−30 mA) at a given
90 phase lag for ±25% input. The relationship between load interval time. In Fig. 6, the experimental results show that

Li et al. 2023 | https://doi.org/10.34133/cbsystems.0025 5

Fig. 5. Transmission diagram of knee and hip. The knee joint is dragged by 4-bar linkage, and the hip-pitch joint is dragged by a crank slider mechanism. The small pictures
of the red track on the right show the relationship between the moment arm length and the angle of hip-pitch and knee, respectively. The small figures of blue trajectory
show the relationship between the joint angle of hip-pitch and knee and the cylinder stroke, respectively, which can be approximately linearized by appropriate parameters
of linkage mechanism.

Li et al. 2023 | https://doi.org/10.34133/cbsystems.0025 6

 Table 3. Joint range, angular velocity, and driving torque of WLR-3P.

Maximum angular
Cylinder/rod-stroke Maximum torque (Nm) @
Joint RoM (deg) velocity
(mm) 21 MPa
(rad/s)
Knee 20/12-68 39.94–175.64 242/99 27/67
Hip 20/12-68 −16.9 to 86.41 286/165 23/40
Waist 20/14-45 −31.49 to 28.44 297/198 22/33

Fig. 6. The no-load speed test results at 7 MPa (rating), 12 MPa (normal), and
Fig. 7. Sinusoidal displacement tracking experiment of hydraulic cylinder for knee and
21 MPa (maximum).
hip joints at 12 MPa supply. Legend items with “-Ref” mean “desired.” Legend items
with “-Mesur” mean “Measured.”

the maximum speed is approximately 0.7 m/s at 21 MPa sup- result of sinusoidal force tracking comprising hip and knee
ply, 0.6 m/s at 12 MPa supply, and 0.45 m/s at 7 MPa supply joints. The median of sinusoidal expected force for hip joint
when the high pressure acts on the rodless cavity. When the and knee joint is 440 and 680 N, respectively, and the amplitude
high-pressure acts on the rod cavity, the maximum speed is is 100 N with 2-Hz frequency. The preliminary experimental
approximately 1.05 m/s at 21 MPa supply, 0.8 m/s at 12 MPa results show that HDU of WLR-3P can track the expected force
supply, and 0.6 m/s at 7 MPa due to the smaller action area. command.
The difference between the actual and the theoretical value
is due to the deviation of the actual flow pressure coefficient High strength and lightweight design
of the servo valve and the friction of the servo cylinder. Light weight and high strength were crucial criteria for the
Figure 7 presents the experimental result of sinusoidal dis- WLR-3P design not only to achieve higher jumps but also to
placement tracking comprising hip and knee joints. A simple minimize impact forces during landing and takeoff.
proportional controller is adopted and the supply pressure is
set at 12 MPa in the test. The expected hip joint cylinder com- Thigh design
mand is a sinusoidal displacement with an intermediate value The structure and composition of the thigh are shown in Fig.
of 40 mm, an amplitude of 5 mm, and a frequency of 2 Hz. 9. The concept of thigh design is to integrate hydraulic cylinders
The expected command of the knee joint cylinder is a sinu- and complex pipes into the middle 3-dimensional (3D) print-
soidal displacement with an intermediate value of 45 mm, an ing part by additive manufacturing and to process the main
amplitude of 5 mm, and a frequency of 2 Hz. When the piston load-bearing skeleton from hip to knee through subtractive
retracts, the tracking error is greater than that when it extends manufacturing. The thigh lateral plate and the middle printing
out. This is because the piston is driven by high pressure in part are fixed by screws. The thigh integrates hydraulic cylin-
the rod cavity during retraction, and the thrust force is smaller ders, pistons, servo valves, LVDTs, force and pressure sensors,
under the same pressure. Compared with the hip joint, the etc. What is more, the 2-channel hydraulic driver and the motor
knee joint has a smaller tracking error because the knee joint driver of the driving wheel on the calf are also installed on the
conveys less inertia. side of the thigh. The hip cap and knee cap, attached to the thigh
In the force tracking experiment, this paper adopted a pro- lateral plates, are used to enhance the stiffness of the thigh.
portional–integral controller because of the noise of the force In this way, the middle 3D printing part was designed and
sensor. In this test, the supply pressure is 12 MPa, and the wheel manufactured separately from the thigh lateral plate, which sim-
keeps contact with the ground. Figure 8 presents the experimental plifies the difficulty of design, processing, and assembly, reduces

Li et al. 2023 | https://doi.org/10.34133/cbsystems.0025 7

the weight and improves the strength of the thigh and the relia- 3D printing are the ability to freely design and manufacture com-
bility of the system. What is more, to realize the organic integra- plex structures, as well as rapid prototyping [26].
tion of hydraulic pipeline and structure, 3D printing technology
is used to manufacture key parts, such as the thigh cylinder, Shank and wheel design
which includes knee and hip cylinders, accumulator, multiple The main factors considered in the shank and wheel design
hydraulic pipelines and radiator fin, as well as the hip hoseless include environmental adaptability, lightweight, and low iner-
hydraulic joint (HHJ), which consists of 2 pipelines. Compared tia. Figure 10 shows the structure of the shank and the wheel.
with the subtractive manufacturing, the main superiorities of The DC brushless servo motor (TQ-ILM115x25), which drives
the wheel through the helical gear (reduction ratio: 2.5) and
synchronous belt (type: CEY896, reduction ratio: 2) 2-stage
reduction transmission, is designed at the calf near the knee
joint. A passive wheel is placed at the knee. WLR-3P can move
like DRC-HUBO when it kneels on the ground [6]. In such
case, the advantage of this design is to reduce the inertia of the
shank. Compared with WLR-II’s calf inertia of 136,425 kgmm2,
WLR-3P’s calf inertia has been reduced by more than half. Since
the impact force from the ground directly acts on the wheel,
the synchronous belt can protect the motor from the impact
and improve the environmental adaptability of WLR-3P.
The general force control based on a dynamic model of the
robot can greatly improve motion performance, which depends
on the accuracy of the dynamic model. Table 4 lists the mass
of each part and the moment of inertia around the rotating
shaft of the joint. Most structural parts of WLR-3P are made
of aviation aluminum 7075-t6, and 3D printing materials are
Fig. 8. Sinusoidal force tracking experiment of hydraulic cylinder for knee and hip made of high-strength aluminum alloy. These lightweight mate-
joints at 12 MPa supply. rials minimize the weight of WLR-3P.

Fig. 9. The structure and composition of the thigh.

Li et al. 2023 | https://doi.org/10.34133/cbsystems.0025 8

Fig. 10. The overview of the calf.

the hollow shaft of hip HHJ allows wires to pass through the
Table 4. Component parameters of WLR-3P. hip axis, and the decreased exposure helps to protect the wires
from the external harsh environment. The hoseless design can
Inertia improve the reliability of the robot hydraulic system and increase
Name Mass (kg) Link length (m) the flexibility of the joint rotation.
(kg·mm2)
Wheel 1.7 0.17 25,151
Shank 4.45 0.365 62,380 HPU design
The miniaturization and integration of a hydraulic power unit
Thigh 6.1 0.37 66,727
(HPU) are the major difficulties in the field of hydraulic robot
Pelvis 27.34 0.247 486,605 research, mainly due to the miniaturization of pump and
Trunk 27.86 0.199 497,493 engine as well as system heating. Unlike the quadruped robot
[29], WLR-3P does not have a large space for HPU installa-
tion. This paper puts forward an innovative design idea to
realize the miniaturization and integration of HPU. First, the
gear pump is driven by a customized external rotor motor
The hydraulic system design through a micro-coupling. The high-pressure oil from the
WLR-3P hydraulic system comprises an HPU and the hydraulic pump passes through the micro-accumulator and filter to
power transmission system. The former mainly solved the prob- provide the hydraulic power required by the system. Second,
lem of power autonomy, while the latter mainly solves the prob- aiming at the heating problem of the system, a multifunc-
lem of power transmission by hoseless design. tional oil tank that integrates heat dissipation, filtration, and
pressure stabilization is designed. As a result, the HPU can
Hoseless design output hydraulic power with a maximum pressure of 21 MPa
Hydraulic biped robots, like HIT-Biped [27], HYQ [28], and and a flow rate of 20 l/min.
CB [25], all adopted the rubber hose to connect HDUs with the The schematic diagram of WLR-3P hydraulic system is
HPU. Although it is simple and effective, the hose across rotat- shown in Fig. 12. The motor drives the hydraulic pump to
ing joints may adversely affect the motion of robots and cause output high-pressure oil, which is directly transmitted to each
unpredictable disturbances. WLR-3P realizes hoseless design HDU through a one-way valve and a high-pressure filter. The
through ingenious hoseless hydraulic joint and cylinder valve high-pressure oil pipeline is also equipped with an accumu-
skeleton integration [20]. As shown in Fig. 11, hip and waist lator to eliminate the pressure pulsation caused by the gear
HHJ parts are all produced by 3D printing. The oil routing part pump. Temperature and pressure sensors detect the pressure
and the bearing part of the joint are designed separately, which and temperature of high-pressure oil, respectively. After pass-
avoids the possibility of bias leakage caused by the misalign- ing through the filter and cooler, the return oil from HDUs
ment of the oil seal groove and the bearing. More importantly, is directly connected to the oil suction port of the pump to

Li et al. 2023 | https://doi.org/10.34133/cbsystems.0025 9

Fig. 11. The hip and waist HHJ of WLR-3P.

Fig. 12. Hydraulic schematic of a complete hydraulic system.

Li et al. 2023 | https://doi.org/10.34133/cbsystems.0025 10

form a closed circuit. The accumulator on the low-pressure instructions to each actuator. As shown in Fig. 14, the industrial
oil pipeline acts as the oil tank, compensating the volume controller based on PC104 is used as the central controller. The
difference of hydraulic oil caused by the single-acting hydrau- PC104 controller has the advantages of small volume, high reli-
lic cylinder and providing a small amount of back pressure ability, and extensibility. In addition, the central controller
to improve the oil absorption performance of the pump. equipped with Intel Atom D525 (1.8 GHz, Dual-core) processor
There is also an electromagnetic relief valve between the is equipped with a 32-bit QNX real-time control system to real-
high-pressure and low-pressure oil pipelines to set the over- ize high-speed real-time control over the whole robot. The
flow pressure of the system. PC104 controller consists of 2 CAN buses and one EtherCAT
Figure 13 shows the structure and composition of HPU. The bus. Ether-CAT bus communicates with motor drivers (Elmo
miniaturization and integration of HPU make the robot get rid G-TWI 25/100EE) of driving wheel, and CAN bus 2 commu-
of the restriction of rubber hose, which makes the robot move nicates with the hydraulic servo drivers, which are used to drive
more flexibly and freely. HDU distributed at various joints. The ontology state perception
of WLR-3P includes inertial measuring unit (IMU) (Phillipse2-
Control System of WLR-3P N-G4A3-B2), pressure sensor, and temperature sensor to mon-
itor the oil pressure and temperature information of each part.
In this section, the robot control system adopting hierarchi- The human–computer interaction part consists of a PC terminal
cal and distributed control architecture is proposed. The that communicates via Wi-Fi and a remote controller commu-
upper controller is responsible for the motion planning and nicating via radio.
decision-making of the robot, and the lower controller is
responsible for the servo control of each joint. Information Control strategy
is transmitted in real time through CAN bus and EtherCAT The wheel-legged robots have high maneuverability and excel-
bus. lent obstacle-crossing performance in unstructured environ-
ments, but the stability is poor and the control system is
Electronic system complex due to the large number of degrees of freedom and
The electronic system of WLR-3P is just like its nervous system. the narrow support area. This part introduces the control strat-
It collects all kinds of information from the whole body and egy of WLR-3P. WLR-3P’s balance controller adopts the wheel
converts them into the electrical signal through various sensors. inverted pendulum model and PD control based on linear
Then, the electric signal is transmitted to the brain (central con- quadratic regulator driving wheels to realize self-balancing
troller). After calculation and judgment, the brain sends control control [30]. Based on the balance controller, the compliance

Fig. 13. The structure and composition of HPU, which is also the pelvis of WLR-3P.

Li et al. 2023 | https://doi.org/10.34133/cbsystems.0025 11

Fig. 14. Electronics system of WLR-3P.

controller is added to deal with complex terrain. The stiffness the whole system. The hardware performance of WLR-3P is
and damping adjustment of the virtual leg can be realized by evaluated from 2 aspects: balance performance and explosive
adjusting the impedance parameters of hip and knee joints. force. This result serves as a solid basis for future algorithm
The 2-mass spring damped inverted pendulum model [31] is testing.
applied to the jump control to realize the trajectory planning
of takeoff, ascent, descent, and compression. Then, the jumping Balance performance experiment
control of WLR-3P is realized by judging the time of taking off Fast-moving and squatting are the most basic movements to
and landing by IMU and force sensor at joints. According to verify the balance performance of wheel-legged robot. When
the law of conservation of angular momentum, the swing of a moving fast, the center of mass (COM) of the robot changes
waist joint is adjusted in the process of jumping for attitude rapidly in the horizontal direction, while COM changes rapidly
control. The control frame of WLR-3P is shown in Fig. 15. The in the vertical direction when squatting.
input of WLR-3P control system consists of a state estimator The fast-moving test can verify the maximum speed of the
with the information provided by its sensors and a model-based robot on the ground, which also tests the acceleration and
trajectory planner. The control commands are output to the deceleration performance and balance ability of the robot. In
driving wheels and hydraulically driven joints by controller Fig. 16, WLR-3P leans forward from the static state, accelerates,
including balance controller, compliance controller, jump con- decelerates, and brakes. WLR-3P returned to the starting point
troller, angular momentum conservation controller, and land- again and repeated the fast-moving test experiment. When the
ing buffer controller. robot moves at high speed, it will cause lateral instability due
to mechanical errors and uneven ground. High-frequency
Experimental Results adjustment of hydraulic joints is required to improve the lateral
stability of the robot.
In this section, we will describe several initial experiments we The experimental results show that the moving velocity of
performed to evaluate the design methods and reliability of WLR-3P can reach 13.6 km/h on the flat ground, and the angular

Li et al. 2023 | https://doi.org/10.34133/cbsystems.0025 12

 IMU State estimate Controller

CoM velocity Stabilizing

LVDT Wheel motors
controller
Touch down
Force sensor judge
Compliance
Takeoff controller Hip hydraulic
Encoder judge cylinders
Jump
User Trajectory planning controller
input
Knee hydraulic
Ascent trajectory Angular cylinders
momentum
Descent trajectory
CoM
Compression Landing
buffer Waist hydraulic
trajectory cylinders
controller
Thrust trajectory

Fig. 15. The control frame for WLR-3P.

velocity of the driving wheel is 22 rad/s. Theoretically, the angu- verifies the hardware system reliability of the wheel-legged
lar velocity of the driving wheel can be higher, but the accel- robot, laying a solid foundation for the following more com-
eration distance is limited to 5 m due to the insufficient laboratory plex moving tasks.
area. The rated angular velocity of DC brushless servo motor
(TQ-ILM115x25) is up to 1,300 r/min, and the angular veloc- Jumping experiment
ity of the wheel can reach 27 rad/s after being decelerated by Jumping requires the robot to have a very strong and fast rising
the reducer. When WLR-3P is under the maximum acceler- force so that the robot can take off in a very short time. At the
ation, the motor just keeps up with the rated torque of 5.4 Nm, same time, the HPU provides enough power to ensure that
far behind the peak torque of 12.2 Nm. When WLR-3P accel- HDUs can obtain enough driving force and speed. These 2 key
erates or decelerates, the horizontal shift of COM (>10 cm) elements are the prerequisite for the robot to jump. The landing
and the inclination angle in the pitch direction (>13°) reflect buffer test mainly verifies the impact resistance of the structure.
the balance performance and maneuverability of the robot, while Figure 19 shows the process of the jump within 0.5 s.
the stability margin of the wheel-legged robot is very narrow, As shown in Fig. 20A, when the robot jumps, the knee joint
close to a line. angle extends from 82° to 128° within 0.3 s and then flexed to
The influence of COM height on the balance is also worth 50°. The height of COM ascended from 47 to 65 cm and then
discussing. In Fig. 17, WLR-3P stands up from deep squat and compressed to 31 cm after landing. To maintain the balance of
then gradually squats down to return to its original state when the robot, COM is also adjusted in real time. Figure 20B shows
its centroid reaches 0.65 m. In the squatting process, COM the changing trend of the torque of knee and hip joints. The
ascents and descents uniformly in the vertical direction, as knee joint torque changes most obviously. During the jump,
shown in Fig. 18B. To achieve balance, COM also needs to be there is a small fluctuation in the hip joint. The biggest fluctua-
adjusted promptly in the horizontal direction. The adjustment tion of hip torque is in the takeoff stage, and the change is small
of COM in the horizontal direction and the change of the tilt when landing. The knee joint mainly bears the impact of landing.
angle in the pitch direction are shown in the Fig. 18A. Figure As can be seen from Fig. 20B, there is a large gap between the
18C shows the joint torques during the squatting process. maximum driving torque of knee joint (117 Nm) and the max-
WLR-3P squatting mainly depends on the knee joint torque, imum theoretical design value (242 Nm). In the landing phase,
and the higher the centroid, the smaller the torque required. the knee joint torque rapidly rises to 228 Nm due to the strong
The main function of the hip joints is to adjust the horizontal impact, which is within the impact range that the structure and
deviation and inclination angle of COM with the knee joints drive unit can withstand. The reason for insufficient driving force
to maintain balance. during takeoff and excessive impact force during landing is that
The fast-moving and squatting tests demonstrate the hori- the response speed of the HPU is lower than that of HDU. It can
zontal and vertical balance ability of WLR-3P, which also be seen from Fig. 20C and D that although the motor speed of

Li et al. 2023 | https://doi.org/10.34133/cbsystems.0025 13

Fig. 16. Fast-moving test. The snapshots on the top (A) show the balance ability of the robot when it moves rapidly. The left graph below (B) quantitatively shows COM velocity,
wheel angular velocity, and driving torque in the 2 speed tests. The right graph (C) shows the pitch inclination angle of COM and the horizontal distance relative to the center
of wheel.

Fig. 17. The snapshots from squat that COM is within the height range of 0.35 and 0.65 m.

HPU increases to compensate the hydraulic power flow of the The successful jumping of the WLR-3P robot has verified
system after takeoff, the response speed of the HPU is still lower the explosive force, high power density, and fast response abil-
than that of HDU, so the pressure drop of the system cannot be ity of the hydraulic drive system. Frequent jumping and landing
prevented. Therefore, how to compensate the flow output of impact also fully test the high strength and impact resistance
HPU to maintain the pressure during the jump process is an of the structure. Summarizing the experimental experience, it
urgent problem to be solved in the follow-up of this work. In can be found that the lighter the weight of the robot and the
this paper, the reliability of the hardware system is verified by stronger the explosive ability of the drive system, the higher
the preliminary jumping experiment. the robot can jump. In particular, the smaller the proportion

Li et al. 2023 | https://doi.org/10.34133/cbsystems.0025 14

Fig. 18. COM adjustment for squat. (A) Offset of COM in the horizontal direction and the inclination angle in the pitch direction. (B) Height change of COM in vertical direction.
(C) Knee and hip torque changes in the squat process.

distributed control architecture is introduced. Finally, experi-

mental tests were conducted on the system for fast-moving,
squatting, and jumping. The balance control ability is verified
by the fast-moving and squatting experiments, while the relia-
bility of the system is verified by the jumping experiment.
However, there is still a gap between the actual performance
and the theoretical design performance, which gives clear
direction for future work. That is, how to match the output
Fig. 19. The snapshots of the jump. WLR-3P completed takeoff, flight, and landing power of the HPU and the power required by HDU. For the
process in 0.5 s. demands on driving power and robot motion, it is necessary to
consider the engineering problems such as heat dissipation and
noise. What is more, the miniaturization and customization of
of the weight of the legs to the total body weight, the higher hydraulic components is also one of the future research direc-
the instantaneous output force and speed of the knee joints, tions. This work has provided a good foundation for further
which will have a more significant impact on the jumping per- work toward the development and control of a wheel-legged
formance of the robot. In the process of developing the WLR-3P robot. More importantly, this research verifies the design and
robot, the above factors are fully considered, and the design control strategy by implementing them in real hardware system.
requirements and implementations proposed in this paper meet
the high mobility requirements of the robot.
Acknowledgments
Conclusions Funding: This work was supported by the Innovative Research
This paper introduces the development process of a highly inte- Groups of the National Natural Science Foundation of China
grated hydraulic wheel-legged robot. First, the design method (51521003), the Natural Science Foundation of Heilongjiang
for WLR-3P for dynamic motion and power autonomy is pre- Province of China (YQ2021F011), and Key Research Project
sented. The design process aims to substantially improve the of Zhejiang Lab (no. 115002-AC2101). This work was also
mobility and environmental adaptability of wheel-legged robot. funded by Open Foundation of the State Key Laboratory of
After that, the robot control system adopting hierarchical and Fluid Power and Mechatronic Systems. Author contributions:

Li et al. 2023 | https://doi.org/10.34133/cbsystems.0025 15

Fig. 20. Jump to verification of explosive force and shock resistance. (A) Change of COM in horizontal and vertical directions and angle change of knee and hip joint (the angle
changes of 2 legs are the same). (B) Torque changes of knee and hip joint. (C) High and low pressure of HPU and high pressure of the 2 legs. (D) Current and rotational speed
variation of HPU motor.

Conceptualization: X.L.; methodology: X.L. and S.Z.; validation: controlled humanoid robot TORO. Paper presented at: IEEE.
X.L. and H.Y.; formal analysis: X.L. and H.F.; investigation: X.L. 2014. 2014 IEEE-RAS International Conference on Humanoid
and S.Z.; resources: X.L. and H.F.; data curation: X.L.; writing— Robots; 2014 Nov 18–20; Madrid, Spain. p. 916–923.
original draft preparation: X.L. and H.Y.; writing—review and 6. Jung T, Lim J, Bae H, Lee K, Joe H, Oh J. Development of the
editing: X.L., H.Y., and S.Z.; visualization: X.L. and H.F.; super- humanoid disaster response platform DRC-HUBO+. IEEE
vision: Y.F.; project administration: Y.F.; funding acquisition: Trans Robot. 2018;34(1):1–17.
Y.F. All authors have read and agreed to the published version 7. Stentz A, Herman H, Kelly A, Meyhofer E, Haynes G,
of the manuscript. Competing interes ts: The authors declare Stager D, Zajac B, Bagnell JA, Brindza J, Dellin C, et al.
that they have no competing interests. CHIMP, the CMU highly intelligent mobile platform. J Field
Robot. 2015;32(2):209–228.
References 8. Schwarz M, Rodehutskors T, Schreiber M, Behnke S. Hybrid
driving-stepping locomotion with the wheeled-legged robot
1. Long X. Optimization-based whole-body motion planning for Momaro. Paper presented at: IEEE International Conference
humanoid robots. Boston: Northeastern University; 2017. on Robotics and Automation; 2016 May 16–21; Stockholm,
2. Atlas—The agile anthropomorphic robot. 2017. http://www. Sweden. pp. 5589–5595.
bostondynamics.com/atlas. 9. Hebert P, Bajracharya M, Ma J, Hudson N, Aydemir A,
3. Bae H, Lee I, Jung T, Oh JH. Walking-wheeling dual mode Reid J, Bergh C, Borders J, Frost M, Hagman M, et al.
strategy for humanoid robot, DRC-HUBO+. Paper presented Mobile manipulation and mobility as manipulation—
at: IEEE 2016. IEEE/RSJ International Conference on Design and algorithms of RoboSimian. J Field Robot.
Intelligent Robots and Systems (IROS); 2016 Sep 09–14; 2015;32(2):255–274.
Daejeon, South Korea. p. 1342–1348. 10. Komagata M, Ko T, Nakamura Y. Small size hydraulic pumps
4. Tsagarakis NG, Caldwell DG, Negrello F, Choi W, with low heat generation for electro hydrostatic actuation of
Baccelliere L, Loc VG, Noorden J, Muratore L, Margan A, humanoid robots. Paper presented at: 2018 IEEE-RAS 18th
Cardellino A, et al. WALK-MAN: A high performance International Conference on Humanoid Robots (Humanoids);
humanoid platform for realistic environments. J Field Robot. 2018 Nov 6–9; Beijing, China. p. 1–6.
2017;34(7):1225–1259. 11. Boaventura T. Hydraulic compliance control of the quadruped
5. Englsberger J, Werner A, Ott C, Henze B, Garofalo G, Burger R, robot HyQ, thesis, University of Genoa, Italy and Istituto
Beyer A, Eiberger O, Schmid K. Overview of the torque- Italiano di Tecnologia; 2013.

Li et al. 2023 | https://doi.org/10.34133/cbsystems.0025 16

12. Semini C, Tsagarakis G, Guglielmino E, Focchi M, 23. Handle—The wheel-legged robot. 2017. https://www.
Cannella F, Caldwell DG. Design of HyQ—A hydraulically and bostondynamics.com/handle.
electrically actuated quadruped robot. P I Mech Eng I-J Sys. 24. Li X, Zhou H, Zhang S, Feng H, Fu Y. Design and experiments
2011;225(6):831–849. of a novel hydraulic wheel-legged robot (WLR). Paper
13. Wensing PM, Wang A, Seok S, Otten D, Lang J, Kim S. presented at: IEEE 2018. 2018 IEEE/RSJ International
Proprioceptive actuator design in the MIT Cheetah: Impact Conference on Intelligent Robots and Systems (IROS); 2018
mitigation and high-bandwidth physical interaction for Oct 1–5; Madrid, Spain. p. 3292–3297.
dynamic legged robots. IEEE Trans Robot. 2017;33(3):509–522. 25. Cheng G, Hyon SH, Morimoto J, Ude A, Hale JG,
14. Pratt J, Krupp B, Morse C. Series elastic actuators for high Colvin G, Scroggin W, Jacobsen SC. CB: A humanoid
fidelity force control. Ind Robot. 2002;29(3):234–241. research platform for exploring neuroscience. Adv Robot.
15. Park HW, Wensing PM, Kim S. High-speed bounding with the 2007;21(10):1097–1114.
MIT Cheetah 2: Control design and experiments. Int J Robot 26. Ngo TD, Kashani A, Imbalzano G, Nguyen KT, Hui D.
Res. 2017;36(2):167–192. Additive manufacturing (3D printing): A review of materials,
16. Paine N, Mehling JS, Holley J, Radford NA, Johnson G, Fok C, methods, applications and challenges. Compos Part B Eng.
Sentis L. Actuator control for the NASA-JSC Valkyrie humanoid 2018;143:172–196.
robot: A decoupled dynamics approach for torque control of 27. Luo JW, Fu YL, Wang SG. 3D stable biped walking control and
series elastic robots. J Field Robot. 2015;32(3):378–396. implementation on real robot. Adv Robot. 2017;31(12):634–649.
17. Hutter M, Gehring C, Jud D, Lauber A, Bellicoso CD, 28. Semini C. HyQ—Design and development of a hydraulically
Tsounis V, Hwangbo J, Bodie K, Fankhauser P, Bloesch M, actuated quadruped robot, thesis, University of Genoa, Italy; 2010.
et al. Anymal—A highly mobile and dynamic quadrupedal 29. Khan H, Kitano S, Frigerio M, Camurri M, Semini C.
robot. Paper presented at: IEEE. 2016. IEEE/RSJ international Development of a lightweight on-board hydraulic system
conference on intelligent robots and systems (IROS); 2016 Oct for a quadruped robot. Paper presented at: SICFP 2015. 14th
9–14; Daejeon, South Korea. p. 38–44. Scandinavian International Conference on Fluid Power;
18. Mao Y, Xu J, Zhu Q, Wu J, Xiong R. Implementation 2015 May 20–22; Tampere, Finland.
of stable and efficient hopping with serial elastic 30. Zhou H, Li X, Feng H, Li J, Zhang S, Fu Y. Model decoupling
actuators. Paper presented at: IEEE 2018. 2018 IEEE- and control of the wheeled humanoid robot moving in
RAS 18th International Conference on Humanoid Robots sagittal plane. Paper presented at: IEEE 2019. IEEE-RAS 19th
(Humanoids); 2018 Nov 6–9; Beijing, China. p. 516–523. International Conference on Humanoid Robots (Humanoids);
19. Hyon SH, Suewaka D, Torii Y, Oku N. Design and experimental 2019 Oct 15–17; Toronto, ON, Canada. p. 1–6.
evaluation of a fast torque-controlled hydraulic humanoid 31. Li X, Fan Y, Yu H, Zhou H, Feng H, Fu Y. Stable jump control
robot. IEEE/ASME Trans Mech. 2017;22(2):623–634. for the wheel-legged robot based on TMS-DIP model. Ind
20. Li X, Zhou H, Zhang S, Feng H, Fu Y. WLR-II, a hose-less Robot. 2022;49(2):212–225.
hydraulic wheel-legged robot. Paper presented at: IEEE 2019. 32. Cui Z, Xin Y, Liu S, Rong X, Li Y. Modeling and control of a
2019 IEEE/RSJ International Conference on Intelligent Robots wheeled biped robot. Micromachines. 2022;13(5):747.
and Systems (IROS); 2019 Nov 3–8; Macau, China. p. 4339–4346. 33. Zhang C, Liu T, Song S, Meng QH. System design and balance
21. Kashiri N, Baccelliere L, Muratore L, Laurenzi A, Ren Z, control of a bipedal leg-wheeled robot. Paper presented at:
Hoffman EM, Kamedula M, Rigano GF, Malzahn J, IEEE 2019. 2019 IEEE International Conference on Robotics
Cordasco S, et al. CENTAURO: A hybrid locomotion and high and Biomimetics (ROBIO); 2019 Dec 06–08; Dali, China.
power resilient manipulation platform. IEEE Robot Autom p. 869–1874.
Lett. 2019;4(2):1595–1602. 34. Wang S, Cui L, Zhang J, Lai J, Zhang DS, Chen K, Zheng Y,
22. Klemm V, Morra A, Salzmann C, Tschopp F, Bodie K, Zhang Z, Jiang ZP. Balance control of a novel wheel-legged
Gulich L, Küng N, Mannhart D, Pfister C, Vierneisel M, et al. robot: Design and experiments. Paper presented at: IEEE
Ascento: A two-wheeled jumping robot. Paper presented at: 2021. 2021 IEEE International Conference on Robotics and
IEEE 2019. 2019 International Conference on Robotics and Automation (ICRA); 2021 May 30–2021 Jun 5; Xi'an, China.
Automation (ICRA); 2019 May 20–24; Montreal, QC, Canada. p. 6782–6788.
p. 7515–7521. 35. Igor. https://www.hebirobotics.com/robotic-kits.

Li et al. 2023 | https://doi.org/10.34133/cbsystems.0025 17