Analysis of stable limit cycle in passive walking

Abstract

Passive walking robot without actuator and control could dynamically walk down by the interaction between walker's dynamics and environment. Furthermore, this motion is attractive because its gait is natural. It has been suggested that the dynamics of passive walking inherently generates gait cycle. And, it is interesting to note that this robot exhibits a stable limit cycle and its gait bifurcates for larger slope angle. Dynamics of passive walking may give us the key to understand human locomotion and to develop better biped robots. Many researchers have studied this category of biped robot. However, its mechanisms are not well understood for now. In this paper, we focus on the stable limit cycle and analyze its dynamics.