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JOURNALS // Regular and Chaotic Dynamics // Archive

Regul. Chaotic Dyn., 2007 Volume 12, Issue 5, Pages 502–520 (Mi rcd635)

This article is cited in 101 papers

On the 150th anniversary of A.M.Lyapunov

A simple model for clock-actuated legged locomotion

J. Seipela, Ph. J. Holmesb

a Department of Integrative Biology, University of California, Berkeley. Berkeley, CA 94720, U.S.A.
b Department of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering; Program in Applied and Computational Mathematics, Princeton University. Princeton, NJ 08544, U.S.A.

Abstract: The spring-loaded inverted pendulum (SLIP) model describes well the steady-state center-of-mass motions of a diverse range of walking and running animals and robots. Here we ask whether the SLIP model can also explain the dynamic stability of these gaits, and we find that it cannot do so in many physically-relevant parameter ranges. We develop an actuated, lossy, clock-torqued SLIP, or CT-SLIP, with more realistic hip-motor torque inputs, that can capture the robust stability properties observed in most animals and some legged robots. Variations of CT-SLIP at a similar level of detail and complexity may also be appropriate for capturing the whole-system center-of-mass dynamics of locomotion of legged animals and robots varying widely in size and morphology. This paper contributes to a broader program to develop mathematical models, at varied levels of detail, that capture the dynamics of integrated organismal systems exhibiting integrated whole-body motion.

Keywords: robotics, animal locomotion, biomechanics, stability.

MSC: 70E60, 70B15, 70Q05, 92C10

Received: 16.07.2007
Accepted: 29.08.2007

Language: English

DOI: 10.1134/S1560354707050048



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