Existence and stability of limit cycles in the model of a planar passive biped walking down a slope

Abstract

We consider the simplest model of a passive biped walking down a slope given by the equations of switched coupled pendula (McGeer T. 1990 Passive dynamic walking. Int. J. Robot. Res. 9 , 62–82. ( doi:10.1177/027836499000900206 )). Following the fundamental work by Garcia (Garcia et al . 1998 J. Biomech. Eng . 120 , 281. ( doi:10.1115/1.2798313 )), we view the slope of the ground as a small parameter γ ≥ 0. When γ = 0, the system can be solved in closed form and the existence of a family of cycles (i.e. potential walking cycles) can be computed in closed form. As observed in Garcia et al. (Garcia et al . 1998 J. Biomech. Eng . 120 , 281. ( doi:10.1115/1.2798313 )), the family of cycles disappears when γ increases and only isolated asymptotically stable cycles (walking cycles) persist. However, no mathematically complete proofs of the existence and stability of walking cycles have been reported in the literature to date. The present paper proves the existence and stability of a walking cycle (long-period gait cycle, as termed by McGeer) by using the methods of perturbation theory for maps. In particular, we derive a perturbation theorem for the occurrence of stable fixed points from 1-parameter families in two-dimensional maps that can be of independent interest in applied sciences.