Energy Efficient Control of Running Legged Robots. A Case Study : The Planar One-Legged Hopper

摘要

The paper addresses the problem of energy-efficient control of running legged mechanisms via the case study of the planar one-legged hopper. Due to its mechanical simplicity, the planar one-legged hopper is generally considered as the basic prototype of mechanisms capable of ballistic running gaits. What makes this system particularly interesting is that, endowed with a proper selection of springs, it can be controlled without spending much actuation energy. Giving core to this possibility has already motivated a few studies, but has not yet, to our knowledge, been extensively explored. The present study is another attempt in this direction. Being primarily motivated by control design and analysis aspects, we have tried to set the basis of a methodology for the derivation of a new class of simple controllers capable of stabilizing passive periodic motions. Elements of this class are explicited by making specic choices about the model used for control design and the control actuation s...