Pursuit of Jumping Height for Pneumatic Muscle-driven Legged Robot

-Experimental Verification of Knee Joint Shape and MPA Coordination Effect-

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. A continuous jump of a 2DOF-1-legged robot with four MPAs has been realized in our previous research. In this paper, to pursue the height of a single jump, we focus on the shape of the knee joint and the coordination among MPAs and analyze these factors’ effect on jumping. First, we create knee joints with various shapes and experimentally verify their effects on jumping. Next, we conduct jumping experiments by giving inputs to the knee flexors and ankle plantar flexors at different times to verify the effect of coordination between MPAs on jumping.