Realization of High-Speed Flat-Footed Passive Dynamic Walking using Ankle Inerters

Abstract

In this paper, we present a novel robot achieving high-speed passive dynamic walking (PDW) using ankle inerters. Recent flat-footed biped robots have achieved energy-efficient walking using ankle elasticity. Biped robots with ankle elasticity cannot, however, easily achieve high-speed walking since they easily slip or bound during walking. To develop a biped robot achieving more various walking than conventional flat-footed robots with ankle elasticity, we have proposed a new biped robot with ankle springs and inerters at the ankles from a viewpoint of mechanical impedance. By simulation, we have shown that the flat-footed biped robot with ankle impedance achieves fast PDW using the ankle inerters. We have thus built a flat-footed passive dynamic walker with ankle springs and inerters as a robot achieving high-speed PDW. We show that our walker achieves high-speed PDW by simulations and experiments.