A Biarticulated Robotic Leg for Jumping Movements: Theory and Experiments

This paper investigates the extent to which biarticular actuation mechanisms—spring-driven redundant actuation schemes that extend over two joints, similar in function to biarticular muscles found in legged animals—improve the performance of jumping and other fast explosive robot movements. Robust numerical optimization algorithms that take into account the complex dynamics of both the redundantly actuated system and frictional contact forces are developed. We then quantitatively evaluate the gains in vertical jumping vis-à-vis monoarticular and biarticular joint actuation schemes and examine the effects of spring stiffness and activation angle on overall jump performance. Both numerical simulations and experiments with a hardware prototype of a biarticular legged robot are reported.