Design, Development, Analysis, and Preliminary Testing of a Compliant Knee for Bipedal Robots

Abstract

Abstract There is still an ongoing effort in the design and development of legged robots in the field of robotics. Bipedal robots can imitate the walking gait cycle, hopping, and jumping type locomotion. To accomplish the gait cycle, the four phases of the gait cycle as double support phase, the pre-swing phase, the single support phase, and the post-swing phase should be successfully alternated in a sequence. Compliant mechanisms have been utilized in biomimetic designs due to their inherent properties such as bending of their flexible members rather than joints when forced and their ability to be manufactured as a single piece. This work presents the design of a single-piece robotic knee consisting of upper and lower legs which are combined using a compliant rolling contact hinge to allow for vertical motion in the foot. The hip of the robot houses two stepper motors to actuate the legs, additional two stepper motors for the swing of the hip, and 4 propeller kits arranged in a standard quadcopter orientation to balance the robot. MATLAB Simscape model of the robot is created for rapid motion analysis.