2019.05.18(am): Design, control, and energetics of an electrically actuated legged robot

link: 10.1109/3477.604106

authors:
P. Gregorio ; M. Ahmadi ; M. Buehler

abstract:
To study the design, control and energetics of autonomous dynamically stable legged machines we have built a planar one-legged robot, the ARL Monopod. Its top running speed of 4.3 km/h (1.2 m/s) makes it the fastest electrically actuated legged robot to date. We adapted Raibert’s control laws for the low power electric actuation necessary for autonomous locomotion and performed a detailed energetic analysis of our experiments. A comparison shows that the ARL Monopod with its 125 W average power consumption is more energy efficient than previously built robots.