Parametric Excitation Mechanisms for Dynamic Bipedal Walking

It is already clarified throughout studies of passive dynamic walking mechanisms that the common nec essary condition for dynamic gait generation comes from the requirement on mechanical energy restoration. Until now we have treated only rotational joints of the robot, whereas in this paper we consider a novel dynamic gait generation method based on mechanical energy restoration by parametric excitation using telescopic leg actuation. We first introduce a simple walking model and a control law for the telescopic leg motion, and show the typical walking pattern by numerical simulations. We then analyze the gait performance by adjusting some control and physical parameters. In addition, some extensions of the mechanism and control applications are investigated.