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Many mechanisms reduce the number of inputs for their target motions by restricting the motions of pairs of joints. This study designs a novel constraint mechanism using a pair of noncircular pulleys and a wire. The wire restricts the motion of the joints to the target motion while enabling a compact structure. We analytically derive the shape of the noncircular pulleys using the desired relation...
Humans can walk stably and adaptively in the presence of various environmental changes. Their bodies have very complex musculoskeletal structures that contribute to their walking stability and adaptability. In this paper, we focus on the gluteus medius, one of muscles contributing to the support of the pelvis. The gluteus medius supports the pelvis when the leg is in a standing position, but it should...
Adaptability of quadruped animals is not solely reached by brain control, but by the interaction between its body, environment, and control. Especially, morphology of the body is supposed to contribute largely to the adaptability. We have tried to understand quadrupedal locomotion by building a bio-inspired quadruped robot named “Pneupard”, which has a feline-like muscular-skeletal structure. In our...
Cyclical locomotion, such as walking, hopping and running, is known to be generated at the spinal cord, guiding human and animal strides over different gaits. Over the last years, many researchers concentrated their study on the origin of such signals, replicating them by either controlling joint angles or torques. In this work, we use a quadruped pneumatic robot to reproduce stable walking on a treadmill...
Vertical ground reaction force(vGRF) has been widely known as a qualitative features of human walking. While a human walks, the vGRF exhibits a double peak profile in which two maximal values appear from the heel contact to the toe off. So far, various studies have been mainly conducted in the field of biomechanics to elucidate the mechanism by which the double peak profile of the vGRF can be generated...
Animals have several peripheral feedback control networks such as stretch reflexes that are supposed to be contributing to stability of their behavior. In this paper, we focus on rolling stability of hopping of a biped robot, and investigate several schemes on an experimental robot for implementing the stretch reflex: no reflex, undelayed and delayed reflex, how they contribute to the stability. For...
In contrast to the high movement adaptability of quadruped animals in many environmental conditions, it is hard for conventional quadruped robots to operate in complex environment conditions. We investigate the adaptability of animals' musculo-skeletal systems, by building a bio-inspired quadruped robot named ”Pneupard” which duplicates a feline musculo-skeletal system. In this study, we built Pneupard's...
Although robotic locomotion have greatly advanced over the past years, the abyss that separates such locomotion from even the simplest animal locomotions prompt us to approach robotic locomotion taking cues from animals. The animal musculoskeletal structure, often ignored by roboticists due to its high redundancy and complexity, might hold the secret for self-stable locomotion observed in bipeds and...
In this paper, we propose a design of a robotic ankle-foot complex based on the human functional-anatomic ankle-foot structure. The proposed foot consists of three links, two joints, and four plantar muscles, whose mechanical stiffness can be controlled by utilizing McKibben pneumatic actuators. With this structure, a deformable medial longitudinal arch in a human foot can be emulated. We developed...
Human's spinal reflexes response rapidly to the change of states of muscles, therefore, they are supposed to play an important role for dynamic motion. In order to realize three dimensional stable jumping, rapid control system is indispensable. In this paper, we investigate contribution of the stretch reflex for stabilizing roll motion of continuous jumping by constructing a musculoskeletal biped...
The human musculoskeletal system is supposed to play an important role in doing various static and dynamic tasks. From this standpoint, some musculoskeletal humanoid robots have been developed in recent years. However, existing musculoskeletal robots did not have upper body with several DOFs to balance their bodies statically or did not have enough power to perform dynamic tasks. We think the musculoskeletal...
Many researchers are interested in the onset and learning of bipedal walking, but still not much is known how a human (and even a robot) can acquire the ability. In this paper, we hypothesize that external rotation of the hip joint plays an essential role for emergence of bipedal walking in human infancy. We build an infant robot “Pneu-born 13” driven by pneumatic artificial muscles so that we would...
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