The objective of this study was to evaluate the performance a magnetorheological-fluid-based variable stiffness actuator leg under high impact forces through optimal tuning and control damping properties. To achieve this, drop testing experiments were conducted with at various heights payload masses. results showed that while lower higher can lead greater energy dissipation, respectively, also ...

Locomotion in unstructured and irregular environments is an enduring challenge robotics. This particularly true at the small scale, where relative obstacle size increases, often to point that a robot required climb transition both over obstacles between locomotion modes. In this paper, we explore efficacy of different design features, using ‘morphological intelligence’, for mobile robots operat...

Recent developments in legged robotics have found that constant stiffness passive compliant legs are an effective mechanism for enabling dynamic locomotion. In spite of its success, one of the limitations of this approach is reduced adaptability. The final leg mechanism usually performs optimally for a small range of conditions such as the desired speed, payload, and terrain. For many situation...

Robots can help to demonstrate and prove concepts on human locomotion such as concepts based on springlike leg behavior. Hopping is a fundamental requirement for running in two basic functions: bouncing and balancing. In addition, for robust hopping against perturbations, swinging the leg in flight/swing phase is observed. These three elements need to be integrated for stable/robust locomotion ...

A new kind of passive force has been discovered in the joints of insects, one that is a large contributor to almost every leg motion, from posture to scratching to locomotion.

The spring-mass model is a valid fundament to understand global dynamics of fast legged locomotion under gravity. The underlying concept of elasticity, implying leg stiffness as a crucial parameter, is also found on lower motor control levels, i.e. in muscle-reflex and muscle-tendon systems. Therefore, it seems reasonable that global leg stiffness emerges from local elasticity established by ap...

Legs are locomotor appendages used by a variety of evolutionarily distant vertebrates and invertebrates. The primary biological leg function, locomotion, requires the formation of a specialised appendicular musculature. Here we report evidence that ladybird, an orthologue of the Lbx1 gene recognised as a hallmark of appendicular myogenesis in vertebrates, is expressed in leg myoblasts, and regu...

Inspired by kangaroo’s locomotion, we report on developing a kangaroo-style hopping robot. Unlike bipeds, quadrupeds, or hexapods which alternate the legs for forward locomotion, the kangaroo uses both legs synchronously and generates the forward locomotion by continuous hopping behavior, and the tail actively balances the unwanted angular momentum generated by the leg motion. In this work, we ...

The Leg-Wheel-Vehicle paradigm offers remarkable and diverse opportunities for creation of mobile and maneuverable terrestrial locomotion systems. However, this capability needs to be unlocked by careful design and control of the individual articulations, the sub-chains and the systems as a whole. Viewing leg-wheel vehicles as another class of parallelkinematic systems now facilitates the syste...