Active Leg Compliance for Passive Walking

Previous research has shown that passive (or ballistic) walking is an energetic efficient and mechanical cheap way of walking. Therefore, ballistic walking would be suitable for applications in rehabilitation technology and autonomous robots. Successful application would require a smooth hip trajectory in order to protect respectively the patient or electronics against large velocity changes due to ground collisions. It is shown that an actively adjustable stance leg compliance in combination with a viscous damping can result in smaller hip velocity changes.

[1]  T. McGeer,et al.  Passive bipedal running , 1990, Proceedings of the Royal Society of London. B. Biological Sciences.

[2]  M. Coleman,et al.  The simplest walking model: stability, complexity, and scaling. , 1998, Journal of biomechanical engineering.

[3]  T McGeer,et al.  Dynamics and control of bipedal locomotion. , 1993, Journal of theoretical biology.

[4]  Martin Buehler,et al.  Stable control of a simulated one-legged running robot with hip and leg compliance , 1997, IEEE Trans. Robotics Autom..

[5]  I. Shimoyama,et al.  Dynamic Walk of a Biped , 1984 .

[6]  Madara Ogot,et al.  Modeling of a leg system to illustrate the feasibility of energy recovery in walking machines , 1994 .

[7]  Shuuji Kajita,et al.  Dynamic walking control of a biped robot along a potential energy conserving orbit , 1992, IEEE Trans. Robotics Autom..

[8]  Robert D. Howe,et al.  Towards smooth bipedal walking , 1994, Proceedings of the 1994 IEEE International Conference on Robotics and Automation.

[9]  Tad McGeer,et al.  Passive Dynamic Walking , 1990, Int. J. Robotics Res..

[10]  Richard Quint van der Linde,et al.  Design, analysis, and control of a low power joint for walking robots, by phasic activation of McKibben muscles , 1999, IEEE Trans. Robotics Autom..

[11]  Werner Schiehlen,et al.  Walking Without Impacts as a Motion/Force Control Problem , 1992 .

[12]  Bernard Espiau,et al.  Limit cycles and their stability in a passive bipedal gait , 1996, Proceedings of IEEE International Conference on Robotics and Automation.

[13]  A. V. Lensky,et al.  Dynamic Walking of a Vehicle With Two Telescopic Legs Controlled by Two Drives , 1994, Int. J. Robotics Res..