Stretch-legged walking in sagittal plane

Abstract

This paper presents a new forward walking pattern known as stretch-legged walking. Additionally, what has been termed the Walking Guide Platform (WGP) was developed to verify the developed walking pattern. For the WGP, a robot that can move in a sagittal plane was created. Next, a guide system and treadmill were developed. Those systems minimize disturbances from other motions except the sagittal plane motion. The proposed walking pattern is divided into walking on the spot and forward walking. These are generated by solving inverse kinematics involving the addition of reference angles of the hip and ankle joints. The Hip Position Ratio(HPR) and the Hip Shape Factor(HSF) were also used to stabilize the walking. These values are dependent on the walking speed. The walking stability was judged using deviation of the ZMP and the body tilt angle. By measuring the current, a comparison in terms of the energy consumption can be made between the proposed walking pattern and a walking pattern with a bending knee.