Locomoting with Less Computation but More Morphology

Abstract

Biped walking is one of the most graceful movements observed in humans. Today’s humanoid robots, despite their undeniably impressive performance, are still a long way from the elegance and grace found in Nature. To narrow the gap between natural and artificial systems, we propose to rely more on morphology, intrinsic dynamics, and less on raw computation. This paper documents a series of simulated and real “pseudo-passive” dynamic biped walkers in which computation is traded off for good morphology, that is, adequate mechanical design and appropriate material properties These two factors are parameterized, and the resulting solution space is explored in simulation. Interesting solutions are then realized in the real world. Our experiments show that successful pseudo-passive walkers with a good morphology locomote by converting oscillatory energy into forward movement.