Dynamic modeling, stability and energy efficiency of a quadrupedal walking machine

A dynamic model of a quadrupedal walking machine is derived to study the dynamic stability and energy efficiency during walking. The legs are three-axis, cylindrical pantograph legs and the whole system consists of twenty-nine links. The quadruped adopts a wave gait which has at least three feet on the ground. Significant efforts are made to improve the computational efficiency. The CPU time of the complete inverse dynamics, including kinematics, is about 10 msec in an IBM 3090. Dynamic stability and energy efficiency during walking with different hip axis orientations, walking velocity, strokes and duty factors are studied and discussed.<<ETX>>