Integrated Structure-control Design of Dynamically Walking Robots

This study is motivated by the need of efficient dynamics-based methodologies for overall design of legged robots (LR). LR have to be considered as functionally directed compositions of mutually influencing components: controllers, actuators, mechanical structure, and sensors. Along with the basic design requirement for strength/load capacity, additional design criteria for LR from a control perspective are needed, to meet the continuously increasing demands for faster locomotion, higher dynamic stability and reduced energy consumption. A central role in defining design criteria from such a point of view plays the control transfer matrix (TM). Based on necessary and sufficient conditions for robust controllability [1], such criteria have been proposed in [2, 3], and their applications to the structural designs of simple LR have been illustrated. In the present study, we consider how the above criteria can be applied to all the subsystems of LR so as to achieve best dynamic performance. An efficient approach for integrated structure-control design of twoand four-LR is proposed that takes into account the major controlled dynamics during locomotion. The locomotion algorithm and the design scheme are based on the concept of using natural dynamics in learning time/energy efficient steps.