Development of an Autonomous-Legged Robot for Running

Development of a Hopping Mechanism

Abstract

A running robot has a flight period during which all legs lose contact with the ground at the same time. Therefore, it requires a control system that calculates an appropriate position of the leg to regulate stability of that movement until the next touchdown. The control system presented herein is effective in maintaining balance against external disturbances. To develop such a robot system, we have been developing a one-legged hopping robot as the first step. The leg consists of electrical actuators and a spring to be installed in an autonomous robot. In this case, it is difficult for the robot even to continue hopping. For that reason, we first developed a hopping mechanism as a leg for the robot.