Rapid acceleration and braking: Inspirations from the cheetah's tail

Abstract

Stimulated by recent biomechanics research of the cheetah, a novel tail controller system for rapid acceleration and braking is presented. To understand the targeted behaviour of a cheetah performing a longitudinal manoeuvre and the effects an actuated tail has, a simple mathematical template was developed. Subsequently feedback controllers were designed based on our hypothesis. Finally, the control system was experimentally tested on a reduced order robot model which increased its manoeuvrability considerably.