Development of Walking Machines: Novel Leg Drive Design and Control

Abstract

In this paper, a novel design of a leg drive mechanism, hardware architecture and leg control method is described for a walking machine being developed for the study of various walking gait strategies. ne leg mechanism employs an inverse differential gear drive system, to provide a large leg lift and swing sweep angle on a common pivotal point while being driven collectively by a pair of motors. The development platform consist's of a pair of legs mounted adjacent to each other on a linear slide. A 3-axis piezo transducer is mounted on the foot to measure the various vector forces in the leg during the walking phase. The description of this unique leg drive system, the hardware architecture used, the position and force control strategy adopted, force sensing results gathered from the 3 axis force sensor, power conservation methods are discussed and presented.