Ever wonder how to design a bipedal robot capable of walking just like a human being? I had always assumed that it would be way too complex for me to understand, but I recently ran across a report that made it much, much easier for me to grasp.
Eric D. Vaughan, Ezequiel Di Paolo, and Inman R. Harvey at the Centre for Computational Neuroscience and Robotics, University of Sussex, have published a great paper titled “The Evolution of Control and Adaptation in a 3D Powered Passive Dynamic Walker”.
Although the title sounds imposing, the paper walks (pun intended) you through all the modeling and design challenges involved along with a lot of the related history and research – with good references if you want to go track down other related research papers.
The diagrams and graphics are very well done – simple enough to be easily understood, yet capturing all the relevant factors involved. It’s not bedtime reading, but if you are really interested in learning about both passive and powered bipedal walking designs, you will find this paper to be quite useful and informative.