Stabilization of Energy-Conserving Gaits for Point-Foot Planar Bipeds

TL;DR

This paper presents a method for designing and stabilizing impact-free, energy-conserving gaits in underactuated point-foot bipeds using virtual holonomic constraints and a Poincaré map approach, with successful numerical demonstrations.

Contribution

It introduces a novel approach combining virtual holonomic constraints and impulse-based Poincaré maps for stabilizing energy-conserving gaits in bipeds.

Findings

Numerical simulations show convergence to desired gait from arbitrary initial conditions.

The method effectively stabilizes impact-free, energy-conserving gaits in a five-link biped model.

The approach ensures stability of periodic hybrid orbits in underactuated bipeds.

Abstract

The problem of designing and stabilizing impact-free, energy-conserving gaits is considered for underactuated, point-foot planar bipeds. Virtual holonomic constraints are used to design energy-conserving gaits. A desired gait corresponds to a periodic hybrid orbit and is stabilized using the Impulse Controlled Poincar\'e Map approach. Numerical simulations for the case of a five-link biped demonstrate convergence to a desired gait from arbitrary initial conditions.