Toward a Human-like Biped Robot with Compliant Legs

Conventional models of bipedal walking generally assume rigid body structures, while elastic material properties seem to play an essential role in nature. On the basis of a novel theoretical model of bipedal walking, this paper investigate a simple model for biped robots which makes use of minimum control and elastic passive joints inspired from the structures of biological systems. The model is evaluated in simulation and a physical robotic platform with respect to the kinematics and the ground reaction force. The experimental results show that the behavior of this simple locomotion model shows a considerable similarity to that of human walking.