Detecting the direction of motion of other animals is critical for a variety of adaptive behaviours, including filial attachment and hunting prey. Two new studies support the view that some vertebrates, including humans, have primitive brain systems for the visual detection of other legged vertebrates.

Abstract In this article, the mechanical design and analysis of a novel three-legged, agile robot with passively compliant 4-degrees-of-freedom legs, comprising hybrid topology serial, planar spherical parallel structures, is presented. The aims to combine established principle Spring Loaded Inverted Pendulum model for energy efficient locomotion accuracy strength mechanisms manipulation tasks....

This paper describes a model-based height controller for a one-legged hopping robot. Equations of motion in two dimensions (i.e. the sagittal plane) are developed. These equations are solved and numerically integrated to produce an actuator command that will allow the robot to regulate its apex height.

The motivation of our current research is to devise motion planners for legged locomotion that are able to exploit the robot’s actuation capabilities. This means, when possible, to minimize joint torques or to propel as much as admissible when required. For this reason we define two new 6-dimensional bounded polytopes that we name Actuationconsistent Wrench Polytope (AWP) and Feasible Wrench Po...

As a contribution to the gait generation and motion control of quadrupeds a concept has been formulated that in its modular structure can be easily adapted and extended. It is generally suitable for quadrupedal walking machines using statically stable gaits (as shown for the four-legged robot ALDURO) and only a few modules need to be adapted to the machine specific topology.

Prototype models of new, fully programmable, autonomous four-legged and humanoid robots are presented as powerful standard platforms for research and education. They are based on an open and modular concept for hardware and software and exhibit a multitude of interfaces, sensors and powerful motion capabilities.

This paper presents preliminary development of autonomous sensor-guided behaviors for a six-legged dynamical robot (RHex). These behaviors represent the first exteroceptive closed-loop locomotion strategies for this system. Simple motion models for RHex are described and used to deploy controllers for inertial straight line locomotion and visual line following. Results are experimentally valida...

Multi-legged walking robots are suitable platforms for unstructured and rough terrains because of their immense locomotion capabilities. These are, however, redeemed by more sophisticated control energy-demanding motion in comparison to wheeled robots. Particularly, electrically actuated multi-legged suffer from the adverse ratio between robot body weight payload capacity. Moreover, speed endur...

For a legged robot such as a humanoid, balancing its body during a given motion is natural but the most important problem. Recently, a motion given to a humanoid is more and more complicated, and thus the balancing problem becomes much more critical. This paper suggests a real-time motion generation algorithm that guarantees a humanoid to be balanced during the motion. A desired motion of each ...

Abstract Legged locomotion poses significant challenges due to its nonlinear, underactuated and hybrid dynamic properties. These are exacerbated by the high-speed motion presence of aerial phases in legged locomotion, which highlights requirement for online planning based on current states cope with uncertainty disturbances. This article proposes a real-time control framework integrating whole-...