A mechatronics approach to legged locomotion

This paper describes a mechatronics methodology that allows the design of systems that are simple and intuitive to analyze and control. The primary application of this methodology is the design of a leg mechanism for a running robot. The approach first divides the system behaviour into several phases, and then finds Simple to Control Mechanisms (SCMs) that can achieve the desired performance in each phase. The mechanical element of the system is designed to emulate these SCMs. It is shown that simple controllers designed for the SCMs of the running robot leg can provide the desired system behaviour.