Prediction of stable walking for a toy that cannot stand

Michael J. Coleman; Mariano Garcia; Katja Mombaur; Andy Ruina

doi:10.1103/PhysRevE.64.022901

Prediction of stable walking for a toy that cannot stand

Michael J. Coleman, Mariano Garcia, Katja Mombaur, and Andy Ruina

Phys. Rev. E 64, 022901 – Published 20 July 2001

Abstract

Previous experiments [M. J. Coleman and A. Ruina, Phys. Rev. Lett. 80, 3658 (1998)] showed that a gravity-powered toy with no control and that has no statically stable near-standing configurations can walk stably. We show here that a simple rigid-body statically unstable mathematical model based loosely on the physical toy can predict stable limit-cycle walking motions. These calculations add to the repertoire of rigid-body mechanism behaviors as well as further implicating passive dynamics as a possible contributor to stability of animal motions.

Received 14 August 2000

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevE.64.022901

Authors & Affiliations

Michael J. Coleman^1,*, Mariano Garcia^1,†, Katja Mombaur^2,‡, and Andy Ruina^1,§

¹Department of Theoretical and Applied Mechanics, Cornell University, Ithaca, New York 14853-7501
²IWR—University of Heidelberg, Im Neuenheimer Feld 368, 69120 Heidelberg, Germany

^*Email address: mjc23@cornell.edu
^†Present address: Ithaca Technical Center, Borg-Warner Automotive, 770 Warren Road, Ithaca, NY 14850. Email address: msg5@cornell.edu
^‡Email address: katja.mombaur@iwr.uni-heidelberg.de
^§Email address: ruina@cornell.edu

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Vol. 64, Iss. 2 — August 2001

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