This study focuses on the passive dynamic walking to enable a biped robot on level ground to walk efficiently with simple mechanisms. To build an efficient bipedal robot, utilizing the dynamical property of the robot system is a useful approach. McGeer studied passivedynamic walking, and showed a biped robot without actuators and controllers can walk stably down a shallow slope in simulations a...

In this study an experimental passive dynamic biped walker is developed. The design of the experimental passive walker incorporates an accelerometer and an encoder for the purpose of gait measurement. The aim of this study is to compare the equivalency of testing a passive dynamic biped walker on a ramp to testing on a treadmill. The measured gaits produced on a ramp and on a treadmill are used...

Passive dynamic walkers (PDWs) are simple dynamical systems that have been used to study the fundamentals of normal human walking. In essence, they are a collection of links and joints capable of “walking” down shallow slopes with a surprisingly human-like gait. PDWs have no active motors or control system, rather they are “powered” by gravity. With judicious choice of model parameters and init...

Autonomous walking bipedal machines, possibly useful for rehabilitation and entertainment purposes, need a high energy efficiency, offered by the concept of ‘Passive Dynamic Walking’ (exploitation of the natural dynamics of the robot). 2D passive dynamic bipeds have been shown to be inherently stable, but in the third dimension two problematic degrees of freedom are introduced: yaw and roll. We...

This paper addresses some performance limits of the kneed and non-kneed passive-dynamic walking machines discovered by McGeer [10, 11]. Energetic inefficiency is measured by the slope γ needed to sustain gait, with γ = 0 being perfectly efficient. We show some necessary conditions on the walker mass distribution to achieve perfectly efficient walking. From our experience and study of a simpler ...

This paper discusses monitoring within wired and wireless networks and the type of monitoring information needed to support different applications. We suggest a hybrid active/passive monitoring approach with a dynamic time window mechanism and interchangeable filters to extract requested information. The paper also shows our initial experimental results and presents our conclusions. Keywords-Ne...

This thesis explores the dynamics of two mechanical systems capable of performing their tasks without the use of active control. The first system is an autobalancer, which can continuously balance rotating machinery. This is accomplished by using compensating masses that move in a viscous media about the axis of rotation. The second system is a passive bipedal walker, capable of human like gait...