Abstract
Although the advantages of mobility in legged vehicles, in comparison to those in wheeled systems are generally recognized and the demand for such vehicles is urgent, the study of legged locomotion systems is still at the experimental stage and a practical legged vehicle has yet to be developed. The present state of research on the lower extremeties is in a remarkable contrast to that on the upper extremeties for which mechanisms such as the manipulator have already been utilized in industrial fields.
The authors believe that the real difficulties which retard the advent of useful legged vehicles lie in their mechanical aspects as well as in the complex coordination control of their multi-joints. Conventional legged mechanisms and their actuating systems are far from being sufficient to produce enough pay-load and to make efficient propulsive movement.
This paper considers the energetic efficiencies in walking. First of all the specific power ε is introduced as an evaluation measure of energetic efficiencies of locomotor. The kinematics of walking are then analyzed and its computer simulations are performed with several leg configurations and gaits. As the result of this computer simulation, some fundamental knowledge such as the fact that the insect type sprawling wide track gait is not inferior to a mammal type erect gait in its energetic efficiency and the weight of the locomotor has a great influence on its energetic efficiency is obtained.
