Abstract:
Achieving energy efficient legged locomotion is an important goal for the future of robot mobility. This paper presents a novel joint for legged locomotion that is energy...Show MoreMetadata
Abstract:
Achieving energy efficient legged locomotion is an important goal for the future of robot mobility. This paper presents a novel joint for legged locomotion that is energy efficient for two reasons. The first reason is the configuration of the elastic elements and actuator which we show analytically has lower energy losses than the typical arrangement. The second is that the joint stiffness, and hence stance duration, is controllable without requiring any energy from the actuator. Further, the joint stiffness can be changed significantly during the flight phase, from zero to highly rigid. Results obtained from a prototype hopper, demonstrate that the joint allows continuous and peak hopping via torque control. The results also demonstrate that the hopping frequency can be varied between 2.2Hz and 4.6Hz with associated stance duration of between 0.35 and 0.15 seconds.
Date of Conference: 06-10 May 2013
Date Added to IEEE Xplore: 17 October 2013
ISBN Information:
Print ISSN: 1050-4729