The Simplest Parkour Model: Experimental Validation and Stability Analysis

We describe and experimentally validate the Simplest Parkour Model (SPM) for the ParkourBot, a planar dynamic climbing robot equipped with two springy BowLegs. By controlling the leg angles and injected energy at impact, the ParkourBot is capable of climbing up and down in a rigid chute on an inclined air table. The SPM consists of a point mass and two massless legs. The legs are assumed to be infinitely stiff, resulting in an instantaneous stance phase and a closed-form solution of the hybrid dynamics. In this paper, we show that the SPM is a good predictor of the actual experimental behavior. Using the SPM we compute the fixed points, stability and basins of attraction of period-1 limit cycles.