The study of terrestrial locomotion has compelling applications ranging from design of legged robots to development of novel prosthetic devices. From a first-principles perspective, the dynamics of legged locomotion seem overwhelmingly complex as nonlinear rigid body dynamics couple to a granular substrate through viscoelastic limbs. However, a surfeit of empirical data demonstrates that animals use a small fraction of their available degrees-of-freedom during locomotion on regular terrain, suggesting that a reduced-order model can accurately describe the dynamical variation observed during steady-state locomotion. Exploiting this emergent phenomena has the potential to dramatically simplify design and control of micro-scale legged robots. We propose a paradigm for studying dynamic terrestrial locomotion using empirically-validated reduced{order models.

Date Published: 3 June 2013
PDF: 10 pages
Proc. SPIE 8725, Micro- and Nanotechnology Sensors, Systems, and Applications V, 87251B (3 June 2013); doi: 10.1117/12.2015889

Published in SPIE Proceedings Vol. 8725:
Micro- and Nanotechnology Sensors, Systems, and Applications V
Thomas George; M. Saif Islam; Achyut K. Dutta, Editor(s)