Analysis of a simplified hopping robot

Martin Buehler, Yale University
Daniel E. Koditschek, University of Pennsylvania

Article comments

Copyright 1988 IEEE. Reprinted from Proceedings of the IEEE International Conference on Robotics and Automation, Volume 2, 1988, pages 817-819.

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NOTE: At the time of publication, author Daniel Koditschek was affiliated with Yale University. Currently, he is a faculty member in the Department of Electrical and Systems Engineering at the University of Pennsylvania.

Abstract

The authors construct a simplified model of a dynamically dexterous robot, M.H. Raibert's hopper, and investigate its elegant, physically based control strategies. Analysis of induced discrete dynamics leads to strong conclusions concerning global limiting properties. These conclusions are then verified by computer simulation of the simplified models, the correspondence of which to the true physical apparatus is seen to be acceptable as well.