Leg Mechanics for Dynamic Locomotion

这项研究朝着步行和跑步机器人的方向发展，这些机器人将达到并超过人类步行和跑步的敏捷性，效率和鲁棒性。具体来说，该研究将解决腿的物理设计背后的基本原则，包括描述关节，弹簧和其他组件的配置，以最好地实现腿部运动。这项工作福尔斯一个广泛的，跨学科的努力，以了解腿的功能和动力学，并将在机器人，动力学和生物力学社区的效用和影响。这里启动的基础设计指南将使机器人能够去动物和人类去的任何地方，以及许多它们不能去的地方，例如核电站灾区和燃烧的建筑物。同样的基础将使假肢和外骨骼与人类腿部的自然动力学相匹配，同时只需一次电池充电就可以运行一整天。这项研究将加强对腿系统设计与其在触地、站立和摆动过程中的动力学之间相互作用的理解，重点关注设计的三个关键方面：首先，腿部的惯性分布，重点是如何放置质量，链接数量，并且腿运动学的“冗余”元素（例如将膝盖指向“上”或“下”）有助于系统在触地时感受到的冲击和在摆动阶段期间的动力学。 其次，电机耦合到联动装置，重点是驱动和机构自由度之间的不同映射如何导致电机分担负载或相互对抗。 第三，弹簧功能和位置，包括用于减轻冲击和摆动相位振铃的理想的非线性，主刚度轴与机构自由度的对准，以及允许依赖于配置的弹性的传动装置。 该研究方法借鉴了生物学和以前建造的机器人的例子，利用应用力学的数学工具，并建立在实验行走和跑步机器人的基础上。

This research moves towards walking and running robots that will meet and exceed the agility, efficiency, and robustness of human walking and running. Specifically, the research will address fundamental principles behind the physical design of legs, including describing configurations of joints, springs, and other components to best enable legged locomotion. This work falls within a broad, interdisciplinary effort to understand leg function and dynamics, and will have utility and impact among the robotics, dynamics, and biomechanics communities. The foundational design guidelines initiated here will enable robots that can go anywhere that animals and humans go, and many places they cannot, such as nuclear power plant disaster areas and burning buildings. The same foundation will enable prosthetic limbs and exoskeletons that match the natural dynamics of a human leg, while running all day on a single battery charge. This research will enhance understanding of the interaction between the design of a legged system and its dynamics during touchdown, stance, and swing, focusing on three key aspects of the design: First, the inertia distribution in the leg, with an emphasis on how mass placement, number of links, and "redundant" elements of leg kinematics (such as pointing the knee "up" or "down") contribute to the impact felt by the system at touchdown and the dynamics during swing phase. Second, the motor coupling to the linkages, focusing on how different mappings between actuation and mechanism degrees of freedom can lead to the motors either sharing loads or fighting against each other. Third, spring function and placement, including desirable nonlinearities for mitigation of impacts and swing-phase ringing, alignment of principle stiffness axes with mechanism degrees of freedom, and transmissions that allow for configuration-dependent elasticity. The research approach draws on examples from biology and previously constructed robots, utilizes mathematical tools from applied mechanics, and builds on prior work with experimental walking and running robots.