Dynamic Stabilisation of the Biped Lucy Powered by Actuators with Controllable Stiffness

This book reports on the developments of the bipedal walking robot Lucy. Special about it is that the biped is not actuated with the classical electrical drives but with pleated pneumatic artificial muscles. In an antagonistic setup of such muscles both the torque and the compliance are controllable. From human walking there is evidence that joint compliance plays an important role in energy efficient walking and running. Moreover pneumatic artificial muscles have a high power to weight rat...