Experiments in Balance with a 3D One-Legged Hopping Machine

Abstract

In order to explore the balance in legged locomotion, we are studying systems that hop and run on one springy leg. Pre vious work has shown that relatively simple algorithms can achieve balance on one leg for the special case of a system that is constrained mechanically to operate in a plane ( Rai bert, in press; Raibert and Brown, in press). Here we general ize the approach to a three-dimensional ( 3D) one-legged machine that runs and balances on an open floor without physical support. We decompose control of the machine into three separate parts: one part that controls forward running velocity, one part that controls attitude of the body, and a third part that controls hopping height. Experiments with a physical 3D one-legged hopping machine showed that this control scheme, while simple to implement, is powerful enough to permit hopping in place, running at a desired rate, and travel along a simple path. These algorithms that control locomotion in 3D are direct generalizations of those in 2D, with surprisingly little additional complication.

Review article: locomotion systems for ground mobile robots in unstructured environments

“…On the contrary, passive-dynamic and limit-cycle walkers can perform motions with flying phases. In fact, they can be considered as biped or quadruped evolutions of the one-legged hopping robots by Raibert (1986) and Raibert et al (1984).…”

Motion Planning for Bipedal Robot to Perform Jump Maneuver

“…Improvement of their locomotion abilities by addition of walking, crawling, climbing, fall protection, and jumping capabilities [1][2][3][4][5][6][7][8][9][10][11][12][13] is important to allow these robots to navigate across such adverse terrain. Unfortunately, most contemporary humanoid robots only have segmental functions.…”

“…Unfortunately, most contemporary humanoid robots only have segmental functions. Some robots are designed simply for walking or crawling [2,4,7], while others are designed for jumping alone [9,10]. The purpose of this paper is to add a jumping pattern to a versatile BHR6 robot, which is actuated using electric motors, and that already has walking, rolling, and fall protection capabilities [11][12][13].…”

Control of a planar robot in the flight phase using transverse function approach

“…This paper refers to the second group of the specified control methods. It proposes an alternative control solution based on the transverse function approach for a two-link flying mechanical structure similar to the Raibert's robot [8].…”