Verification of the effect of biarticular muscle on the jumping motion of the legged robot driven by McKibben pneumatic muscles

Abstract

McKibben pneumatic actuator(MPA), which is one of the soft actuators, has various useful features as an actuator for robots. Therefore, many dynamic motions by a robot using MPA as an actuator have been realized. In our previous research, we also have developed a jumping robot using MPA, but it was a simple robot with only a knee joint. In this research, we develop a new legged robot with an ankle joint in addition to a knee joint. Besides, the biarticular muscle is considered to be useful for the proper interlocking of the knee and ankle joints to achieve higher jumps. Therefore, a biarticular muscle equivalent to the gastrocnemius of humans is implemented in the developed robot. Through jumping experiments using the developed legged robot, the effect of the biarticular muscle for jumping is verified.