Poincare's method for systems with impulse effects: application to mechanical biped locomotion

Abstract

The existence and stability properties of periodic orbits are studied for nonlinear systems with impulse effects. This is achieved with an extension of the well-known method of Poincare. The main result is then applied to a model of an under actuated, five degree of freedom biped robot with a torso in order to prove, for the first time, the existence of an asymptotically stable walking cycle.