RAMone: A planar biped for studying the energetics of gait

Abstract

This paper introduces RAMone, a series-elastic planar biped with knees, built to study the energetics of bipedal locomotion. RAMone is designed to achieve versatile, economical motion using lightweight legs with highly compliant joints. To demonstrate the hardware, we present a virtual-model controller that regulates body height and forward speed while walking. This controller achieves stable walking for a range of body heights, both in hardware and simulation. For these gaits, we verify that the energetic cost of transport decreases as walking height increases, in agreement with previous results for robot models and humans.