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Minimally Actuated Walking: Identifying Core Challenges to Economical Legged Locomotion Reveals Novel Solutions

Terrestrial organisms adept at locomotion employ strut-like legs for economical and robust movement across the substrate. Although it is relatively easy to observe and analyze details of the solutions these organic systems have arrived at, it is not as easy to identify the problems these movement st...

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Detalles Bibliográficos
Autores principales: Schroeder, Ryan T, Bertram, John EA
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: Frontiers Media S.A. 2018
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7904315/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/33644120
http://dx.doi.org/10.3389/frobt.2018.00058
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author Schroeder, Ryan T
Bertram, John EA
author_facet Schroeder, Ryan T
Bertram, John EA
author_sort Schroeder, Ryan T
collection PubMed
description Terrestrial organisms adept at locomotion employ strut-like legs for economical and robust movement across the substrate. Although it is relatively easy to observe and analyze details of the solutions these organic systems have arrived at, it is not as easy to identify the problems these movement strategies have solved. As such, it is useful to investigate fundamental challenges that effective legged locomotion overcomes in order to understand why the mechanisms employed by biological systems provide viable solutions to these challenges. Such insight can inform the design and development of legged robots that may eventually match or exceed animal performance. In the context of human walking, we apply control optimization as a design strategy for simple bipedal walking machines with minimal actuation. This approach is used to discuss key facilitators of energetically efficient locomotion in simple bipedal walkers. Furthermore, we extrapolate the approach to a novel application—a theoretical exoskeleton attached to the trunk of a human walker—to demonstrate how coordinated efforts between bipedal actuation and a machine oscillator can potentially alleviate a meaningful portion of energetic exertion associated with leg function during human walking.
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spelling pubmed-79043152021-02-25 Minimally Actuated Walking: Identifying Core Challenges to Economical Legged Locomotion Reveals Novel Solutions Schroeder, Ryan T Bertram, John EA Front Robot AI Robotics and AI Terrestrial organisms adept at locomotion employ strut-like legs for economical and robust movement across the substrate. Although it is relatively easy to observe and analyze details of the solutions these organic systems have arrived at, it is not as easy to identify the problems these movement strategies have solved. As such, it is useful to investigate fundamental challenges that effective legged locomotion overcomes in order to understand why the mechanisms employed by biological systems provide viable solutions to these challenges. Such insight can inform the design and development of legged robots that may eventually match or exceed animal performance. In the context of human walking, we apply control optimization as a design strategy for simple bipedal walking machines with minimal actuation. This approach is used to discuss key facilitators of energetically efficient locomotion in simple bipedal walkers. Furthermore, we extrapolate the approach to a novel application—a theoretical exoskeleton attached to the trunk of a human walker—to demonstrate how coordinated efforts between bipedal actuation and a machine oscillator can potentially alleviate a meaningful portion of energetic exertion associated with leg function during human walking. Frontiers Media S.A. 2018-05-22 /pmc/articles/PMC7904315/ /pubmed/33644120 http://dx.doi.org/10.3389/frobt.2018.00058 Text en Copyright © 2018 Schroeder and Bertram http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) and the copyright owner are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
spellingShingle Robotics and AI
Schroeder, Ryan T
Bertram, John EA
Minimally Actuated Walking: Identifying Core Challenges to Economical Legged Locomotion Reveals Novel Solutions
title Minimally Actuated Walking: Identifying Core Challenges to Economical Legged Locomotion Reveals Novel Solutions
title_full Minimally Actuated Walking: Identifying Core Challenges to Economical Legged Locomotion Reveals Novel Solutions
title_fullStr Minimally Actuated Walking: Identifying Core Challenges to Economical Legged Locomotion Reveals Novel Solutions
title_full_unstemmed Minimally Actuated Walking: Identifying Core Challenges to Economical Legged Locomotion Reveals Novel Solutions
title_short Minimally Actuated Walking: Identifying Core Challenges to Economical Legged Locomotion Reveals Novel Solutions
title_sort minimally actuated walking: identifying core challenges to economical legged locomotion reveals novel solutions
topic Robotics and AI
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7904315/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/33644120
http://dx.doi.org/10.3389/frobt.2018.00058
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