A Hopping Mechanism through the Use of Resonance (An Analytical Study and Proposal for an Effective Hopping Method)

Abstract

In recent years, various kinds of robot systems have been developed, and various kinds of locomotion methods have been developed for them. One of the locomotion methods is the hopping locomotion method, which exhibits high performance in the fields with rough terrain and uncertainties because it does not require continuous contact with the ground during locomotion. Utilizing resonance in the hopping mechanism should have a beneficial effect on energy consumption and downsizing the system. In this study, in an attempt to utilize resonance for the hopping mechanism, a hopping phenomenon induced by resonance is analyzed; the analysis reveals that a simple resonance of the system results in an insufficient hopping height due to insufficient energy stored by the resonance. The analysis further reveals that dividing excited components and separately exciting them enable the storage of greater energy via resonance than simple excitation. Based on the analysis, this paper proposes an effective energy-storing method for the hopping mechanism through the use of resonance. The effectiveness of the proposed method is confirmed by numerical analyses and experiment.