Universidad Politécnica de Madrid. 2002
Abstract:
Legged locomotion has advantages on uneven terrain that make walking machines especially
suitable for industrial and non-industrial applications, such as terrestrial and
planetary exploration and humanitarian de-mining. Nevertheless, in order
for successful real applications to be implemented, the current performance of walking machines must be improved.
In the last three decades legged locomotion has evolved at a breathtaking
pace, but still one of the major shortcomings of walking robots is their poor
speed. Robot speed is limitted by actuator power and robot stability. This Thesis aims at improving legged locomotion by a) improving robot stability and 2) optimizing leg trajectories by increasing
leg speed to close to the actuator-torque limits, which requires an exhaustive dynamic analysis of the system.
Director Pablo González de Santos
Peer reviewed