Optimal control for maximizing link velocity of visco-elastic joints

Designing intrinsically elastic robots recently attracted significant attention. Inspired by the elasticity in biological muscles, these designs aim at enabling robots to imitate human or animal motions during various tasks such as hopping, running, etc. In particular, reaching peak velocities, using the stored energy in the according elasticities, is of great interest. Applying optimal control theory, we investigate the problem of maximizing link velocity for visco-elastic joints. The main contribution of the paper is thus isolating the effects of mechanical joint damping on the optimal control policy.