Experimental Results on the First Movements of the Pneumatic Biped “Lucy”

This paper presents the biped Lucy and the first experimental results of this robot. Lucy is actuated by Pleated Pneumatic Artificial Muscles, which have a very high power to weight ratio and an inherent adaptable compliance. These characteristics will be used to make Lucy walk in a dynamic stable way while exploiting the adaptable passive behaviour of these muscles. The paper will describe briefly the concept of the pleated pneumatic artificial muscle and the creation of the revolute joint used for the biped. The design and implementation of the pressure control unit will be discussed followed by an overview of the complete robot. During the assembly and debugging phase of the robot a quasi-static global control has been implemented while using adapted PID techniques for the local feedback joint control. These initial control techniques resulted in the first movements of Lucy, which will be shown and