scholarly journals Design of Biomechanical Legs with a Passive Toe Joint for Enhanced Human-like Walking

2017 ◽  
Vol 14 (2) ◽  
pp. 166 ◽  
Author(s):  
Riadh Zaier ◽  
A. Al-Yahmedi

This paper presents the design procedure of a biomechanical leg, with a passive toe joint, which is capable of mimicking the human walking. This leg has to provide the major features of human gait in the motion trajectories of the hip, knee, ankle, and toe joints. Focus was given to the approach of designing the passive toe joint of the biomechanical leg in its role and effectiveness in performing human like motion. This study was inspired by experimental and theoretical studies in the fields of biomechanics and robotics. Very light materials were mainly used in the design process. Aluminum and carbon fiber parts were selected to design the proposed structure of this biomechanical leg, which is to be manufactured in the Mechanical Lab of the Sultan Qaboos University (SQU). The capabilities of the designed leg to perform the normal human walking are presented. This study provides a noteworthy and unique design for the passive toe joint, represented by a mass-spring damper system, using torsion springs in the foot segment. The working principle and characteristics of the passive toe joint are discussed.  Four-designed cases, with different design parameters, for the passives toe joint system are presented to address the significant role that the passive toe joint plays in human-like motion. The dynamic motion that is used to conduct this comparison was the first stage of the stance motion. The advantages of the presence of the passive toe joint in gait, and its effect on reducing the energy consumption by the other actuated joints are presented and a comparison between the four-designed cases is discussed.

2015 ◽  
Vol 39 (2) ◽  
pp. 201-219 ◽  
Author(s):  
Yousef Bazargan-Lari ◽  
Mohammad Eghtesad ◽  
Ahmad R. Khoogar ◽  
Alireza Mohammad-Zadeh

For human walking, the swing leg is usually modeled as a double pendulum. Considering a joint self-impact constraint at the knee joint of the double pendulum model is the main difference in this study. The primary objective of this research is to propose a nonlinear Adaptive Neural Network (ANN) for this system. By using Gaussian RBF networks, asymptotically stable tracking is attained. We will use the available data of normal human walking for the desired trajectories of the hip and knee joints. By simulation of the system, we perceive that the swing leg tracks the normal human gait with a negligible and tolerable error.


2008 ◽  
Vol 131 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Ben R. Whittington ◽  
Darryl G. Thelen

It has previously been shown that a bipedal model consisting of a point mass supported by spring limbs can be tuned to simulate periodic human walking. In this study, we incorporated roller feet into the spring-mass model and evaluated the effect of roller radius, impact angle, and limb stiffness on spatiotemporal gait characteristics, ground reactions, and center-of-pressure excursions. We also evaluated the potential of the improved model to predict speed-dependent changes in ground reaction forces and center-of-pressure excursions observed during normal human walking. We were able to find limit cycles that exhibited gait-like motion across a wide spectrum of model parameters. Incorporation of the roller foot (R=0.3m) reduced the magnitude of peak ground reaction forces and allowed for forward center-of-pressure progression, making the model more consistent with human walking. At a fixed walking speed, increasing the limb impact angle reduced the cadence and prolonged stance duration. Increases in either limb stiffness or impact angle tended to result in more oscillatory vertical ground reactions. Simultaneous modulation of the limb impact angle and limb stiffness was needed to induce speed-related changes in ground reactions that were consistent with those measured during normal human walking, with better quantitative agreement achieved at slower speeds. We conclude that a simple mass-spring model with roller feet can well describe ground reaction forces, and hence center of mass motion, observed during normal human walking.


Robotica ◽  
2012 ◽  
Vol 31 (4) ◽  
pp. 555-572 ◽  
Author(s):  
Carlotta Mummolo ◽  
Joo H. Kim

SUMMARYUnderstanding and mimicking human gait is essential for design and control of biped walking robots. The unique characteristics of normal human gait are described as passive dynamic walking, whereas general human gait is neither completely passive nor always dynamic. To study various walking motions, it is important to quantify the different levels of passivity and dynamicity, which have not been addressed in the current literature. In this paper, we introduce the initial formulations of Passive Gait Measure (PGM) and Dynamic Gait Measure (DGM) that quantify passivity and dynamicity, respectively, of a given biped walking motion, and the proposed formulations will be demonstrated for proof-of-concepts using gait simulation and analysis. The PGM is associated with the optimality of natural human walking, where the passivity weight functions are proposed and incorporated in the minimization of physiologically inspired weighted actuator torques. The PGM then measures the relative contribution of the stance ankle actuation. The DGM is associated with the gait stability, and quantifies the effects of inertia in terms of the Zero-Moment Point and the ground projection of center of mass. In addition, the DGM takes into account the stance foot dimension and the relative threshold between static and dynamic walking. As examples, both human-like and robotic walking motions during single support phase are generated for a planar biped system using the passivity weights and proper gait parameters. The calculated PGM values show more passive nature of human-like walking as compared with the robotic walking. The DGM results verify the dynamic nature of normal human walking with anthropomorphic foot dimension. In general, the DGMs for human-like walking are greater than those for robotic walking. The resulting DGMs also demonstrate their dependence on the stance foot dimension as well as the walking motion; for a given walking motion, smaller foot dimension results in increased dynamicity. Future work on experimental validation and demonstration will involve actual walking robots and human subjects. The proposed results will benefit the human gait studies and the development of walking robots.


2016 ◽  
Vol 2016 ◽  
pp. 1-17 ◽  
Author(s):  
Tae-Hoon Lee ◽  
Gun-Ha Yoon ◽  
Seung-Bok Choi

This paper investigates the deploying time (or response time) of an active hood lift system (AHLS) of a passenger vehicle activated by gunpowder actuator. In this work, this is accomplished by changing principal design parameters of the latch part mechanism of the hood system. After briefly introducing the working principle of the AHLS operated by the gunpowder actuator, the governing equations of the AHLS are formulated for each different deploying motion. Subsequently, using the governing equations, the response time for deploying the hold lift system is determined by changing several geometric distances such as the distance from the rotational center of the pop-up guide to the point of the latch in the axial and vertical directions. Then, a comparison is made of the total response time to completely deploy the hood lift system with the existing conventional AHLS and proposed AHLS. In addition, the workable driving speed of the proposed AHLS is compared with the conventional one by changing the powder volume of the actuator.


2021 ◽  
Vol 11 (7) ◽  
pp. 3017
Author(s):  
Qiang Gao ◽  
Siyu Gao ◽  
Lihua Lu ◽  
Min Zhu ◽  
Feihu Zhang

The fluid–structure interaction (FSI) effect has a significant impact on the static and dynamic performance of aerostatic spindles, which should be fully considered when developing a new product. To enhance the overall performance of aerostatic spindles, a two-round optimization design method for aerostatic spindles considering the FSI effect is proposed in this article. An aerostatic spindle is optimized to elaborate the design procedure of the proposed method. In the first-round design, the geometrical parameters of the aerostatic bearing were optimized to improve its stiffness. Then, the key structural dimension of the aerostatic spindle is optimized in the second-round design to improve the natural frequency of the spindle. Finally, optimal design parameters are acquired and experimentally verified. This research guides the optimal design of aerostatic spindles considering the FSI effect.


Robotica ◽  
2014 ◽  
Vol 33 (7) ◽  
pp. 1536-1550 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jung-Jun Park ◽  
Jae-Bok Song ◽  
Sami Haddadin

SUMMARYThe safety analysis of human–robot collisions has recently drawn significant attention, as robots are increasingly used in human environments. In order to understand the potential injury a robot could cause in case of an impact, such incidents should be evaluated before designing a robot arm based on biomechanical safety criteria. In recent literature, such incidents have been investigated mostly by experimental crash-testing. However, experimental methods are expensive, and the design parameters of the robot arm are difficult to change instantly. In order to solve this issue, we propose a novel robot-human collision model consisting of a 6-degree-of-freedom mass-spring-damper system for impact analysis. Since the proposed robot-human consists of a head, neck, chest, and torso, the relative motion among these body parts can be analyzed. In this study, collision analysis of impacts to the head, neck, and chest at various collision speeds are conducted using the proposed collision model. Then, the degree of injury is estimated by using various biomechanical severity indices. The reliability of the proposed collision model is verified by comparing the obtained simulation results with experimental results from literature. Furthermore, the basic requirements for the design of safer robots are determined.


Author(s):  
Sayed M. Metwalli ◽  
M. Alaa Radwan ◽  
Abdel Aziz M. Elmeligy

Abstract The convensional procedure of helical torsion spring design is an iterative process because of large number of requirements and relations that are to be attained once at a time. The design parameters are varied at random until the spring design satisfies performance requirements. A CAD of the spring for minimum weight is formulated with and without the variation of the maximum normal stress with the wire diameter. The CAD program solves by employing the method of Lagrange-Multipliers. The optimal parameters, in a closed form are obtained, normalized and plotted. These explicit relations of design variables allow direct evaluation of optimal design objective and hence, an absolute optimum could be achieved. The comparison of optimum results with those previously published, shows a pronounced achievement in the reduction of torsion spring weight.


1988 ◽  
Vol 1 (21) ◽  
pp. 176
Author(s):  
C. David Anglin ◽  
William F. Baird ◽  
Etienne P.D. Mansard ◽  
R. Douglas Scott ◽  
David J. Turcke

There is a general lack of knowledge regarding the nature and magnitude of loads acting on armour units used for the protection of rubblemound coastal structures. Thus, a comprehensive design procedure incorporating both the hydraulic stability and the structural integrity of the armour units does not exist. This paper presents the results of a detailed parametric study of the structural response of armour units to wave-induced loading in a physical breakwater model. The effect of the following design parameters is investigated: breakwater slope, armour unit location, wave period and wave height. This research has made a number of significant contributions towards the development of a comprehensive design procedure for concrete armour units. It has identified a linear relationship between the wave-induced stress in the armour units and the incident wave height. In addition, it has shown that the conditional probability of waveinduced stress given wave height can be estimated by a log-normal distribution. Finally, a preliminary design chart has been developed which incorporates both the structural integrity and the hydraulic stability of the armour units.


Author(s):  
Haoyu Ren ◽  
Qimin Li ◽  
Bing Liu ◽  
Zhenhuan Dou

High acceleration and extreme load are frequently appeared on high-speed locomotion of legged robot’s legs, imposing a challenging trade-off between weight and torque in leg design. This paper proposes a new design paradigm based on cable-drive and elastic linkage to solve the problem. The details of the design procedure are given, including the construction of the single leg. With the optimum design of the linkage mechanism, a combined index of the workspace and tracking error are used as object function, and taking geometrical design parameters of the linkage as optimization parameters. Based on the target workspace and the spring-loaded inverted pendulum model, the best foot trajectory in obstacle climbing and trotting gait are analyzed and illustrated. This paper built linkage cable-drive spring robot based on the legged module integration. Simulations and experiments indicate that linkage cable-drive spring robot performs stable trotting with control of the spring-loaded inverted pendulum model. Linkage cable-drive spring robot prototype experiments results are provided to verify the validity of the new method.


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