Development of Hind Body Robot That Can Exploit Interlocking Mechanism of Horses

Abstract

Quadrupeds have an excellent ability to generate various limb trajectories according to locomotion speeds and road conditions. In order to investigate the source of the ability, we developed a hind body robot with hindlimb models of horses. The hindlimb model has major six tendons in houses’ hindlimb that contribute to provide interlocking of multiple joints. A walking experiment showed that the robot exhibited smooth transitions between the swing and stance phases only by actuating the hip joint with sinusoidally. The result suggests that the interlocking mechanism, which is provided from the passive tendon structure, plays a role in horse walking.