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Title page for ETD etd-07142010-145719


Type of Document Thesis
Author Andrews, Benjamin S.
Author's Email Address bsa02@fsu.edu
URN etd-07142010-145719
Title Running Over Unknown Rough Terrain with a One-Legged Planar Robot
Degree Master of Science
Department Mechanical Engineering, Department of
Advisory Committee
Advisor Name Title
Jonathan Clark Committee Chair
Emmanuel Collins Committee Member
William Oates Committee Member
Keywords
  • Active Energy Removal
  • One-legged
  • Swing Leg Retraction
  • Minimal Sensing
  • Rough Terrain
  • Slip Model
  • Running
  • Hopping
  • Robot
  • Planar
  • One Legged
Date of Defense 2010-06-07
Availability unrestricted
Abstract
The ability to traverse over unknown, rough terrain is an advantage that legged locomotion has over wheeled systems. However, due to the complexity of multi-legged systems, researchers in legged robotics have not been able to reproduce the agility found in the animal kingdom. In an effort to reduce this complexity, researchers have developed single-legged models, or templates, to gain insight into the fundamental dynamics of legged running. Inspired by studies of animal locomotion, researchers have proposed numerous control strategies to achieve stable one-legged running over unknown, rough terrain. One such control strategy incorporates energy variations into the system during the stance phase by changing the force-free leg length as a sinusoidal function of time. In this research, a one legged planar robot capable of implementing this and other state-of-the-art control strategies was designed and built. Both simulated and experimental results are used to determine and compare the stability of the proposed controllers as the robot is subjected to unknown drop and raised step perturbations equal to 25% of the nominal leg length. This study illustrates the relative advantages of utilizing a minimal-sensing, active energy removal control scheme to stabilize running over rough terrain.
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