This paper presents the design and implementation of a bounding controller for the MIT Cheetah 2 and its experimental results. The paper introduces the architecture of the controller along with the...

High-speed bounding with the MIT Cheetah 2: Control design and experiments

Chinese mitten crabhas unique limb structures composed of a hard exoskeleton and flexible muscles. They enable the crab to locomote adaptively and safely on various terrains. In this work, we investigated the limb structures, motion principle, and gaits of the crab using a high-speed camera and a press machine. Then, a novel compliant robot leg design method is proposed, inspired by the crab limb. The leg comprises six hard scleromeres and a flexible thin-wall spring steel sheet (FSSS) mimicking the exoskeleton and muscle. The scleromeres connected one by one with rotational joints are designed with slots. The front end of the FSSS is fixed on the scleromere close to the ground. The rear end crosses the slots and is mounted at the shaft of a linear actuator installed at the rear scleromere. The leg bends and stretches when the actuator pushes and pulls the FSSS, respectively. The kinematic modeling, rigid-flexible coupling dynamic simulations, and leg prototype tests are conducted, which verify the leg design approach. Thirdly, we put forward a multi-legged robot with eight compliant legs and design its gait using the gaits of the crab. Finally, the robot's performance is evaluated, including the capabilities of walking on different terrains at adjustable speeds and body heights, traversing low channels, walking on slopes, and carrying loads. The results prove that the single-motor-actuated compliant legs and their dynamic coupling with the rigid robot body frame can enable them to have the ground clearance ability and realize the adaptive walking of the robot. The leg design methodology can be used to design multi-legged robots with the merits of compact, light, low mechanical complexity, high safety, and easy to control, for many applications, such as environmental monitoring, search and rescue. 

Crab-inspired compliant leg design method for adaptive locomotion of a multi-legged robot

Hopping frequency influences elastic energy reuse with joint series elastic actuators.

Despite many years of research on the phenomenon of vertical jumps, some questions and problems remain unsettled. Simplified interpretations of physical measures for describing human movement may fail to reflect results, as expected based on the laws of physics. Due to changes in the importance and function of jumping in human life over the years, continued research is necessary to provide more details regarding the processes that occur during this movement, at least with respect to the usefulness of vertical jumps in sports. This chapter explains the basic properties of human skeletal muscles with respect to elasticity. The elasticity phenomenon can be illustrated as an idealised spring with linear characteristics. Stretched elastic elements store potential elastic energy that is released when the spring returns to its original length. The musculotendinous groups in the human body similarly have the ability to accumulate and recover potential elastic energy. For example, performing a countermovement before take-off during a vertical jump leads to the rapid extension of musculotendinous groups before contraction; this action accumulates potential elastic energy and, consequently, impacts jump height.

Measuring Leg Stiffness During Vertical Jumps: Theory and Methods

Running stably on uneven natural terrain takes skillful control and was critical for human evolution. Even as runners circumnavigate hazardous obstacles such as steep drops, they must contend with uneven ground that is gentler but still destabilizing. We do not know how footsteps are guided based on the uneven topography of the ground and how those choices influence stability. Therefore, we studied human runners on trail-like undulating uneven terrain and measured their energetics, kinematics, ground forces, and stepping patterns. We find that runners do not selectively step on more level ground areas. Instead, the body's mechanical response, mediated by the control of leg compliance, helps maintain stability without requiring precise regulation of footsteps. Furthermore, their overall kinematics and energy consumption on uneven terrain showed little change from flat ground. These findings may explain how runners remain stable on natural terrain while devoting attention to tasks besides guiding footsteps. 

How human runners regulate footsteps on uneven terrain

This chapter discusses how biologically inspired principles and mechanisms can be transferred in the engineering domain with the purpose of designing legged robots capable of reproducing animal locomotion behaviors. A bioinspired design approach is described, which relies on quantifying the basic principles underlying a desired locomotion behavior through simple, yet predictive, mathematical models. The chapter begins by examining the human foot and exploring its implications toward the design of the next generation of prosthetic and orthotic devices. Then, a detailed discussion of various approaches for designing robot legs is provided. The chapter concludes with a description of a number of bipedal and quadrupedal robots as instances of a bio-inpired approach to design. Throughout the chapter, the emphasis is on realizing natural-like locomotion behaviors on engineered systems without necessarily copying the exact mechanisms by which animals produce these behaviors in nature.

Legged Robots with Bioinspired Morphology

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Legged Robots with Bioinspired Morphology