Abstract
A flexible microactuator, FMA, has potential to reproduce human friendly actuation based on its smoothness in motion. A trot-walking-robot with four FMAs moves softly like an animal. The FMAs are energized by compressed air and its motion is controlled by a combination of switching valves. The valve control expands degrees of freedom of the walking pattern. The FMA-animal has issues on walking speed and stiffness. The speed is increased by shortening the pneumatic tube length, and the stiffness is improved by using elliptic-sectional-shaped FMA. FMA-animal with 70mm in foot-length walks in the speed range from 50 to 250 cm/min under the operating pressure from 0.15 to 0.35 MPaG.
