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[2019-Vol.16-Issue 3]Performance of a Thermal Bipedal Walker on Inclined Surfaces with Different Leg CoMs
发布时间: 2019-06-10 10:51  点击:2745

Journal of Bionic Engineering

May 2019, Volume 16, Issue 3, pp 540–549| Cite as

Lingchao SuEmail authorTakeru NemotoAkio Yamamoto

Department of Precision Engineering, School of EngineeringThe University of TokyoTokyoJapan

Abstract

This paper investigates the walking performance of a thermal walker on various inclined surfaces. The thermal walker can walk only by ground heat energy using bimetal sheets. The walking performance on slopes is analyzed using a simplified walker model. The analytical result is compared with the two sets of walking experiments, on slopes with either pitch or roll inclinations. The analyses and the experiments are done with different Center-of-Mass (CoM) positions of the legs, which considerably influence the walking performance. It was found that, on up/down slopes, the stride of the thermal walker changes almost linearly with the slope angle. When the CoM was close to the center of the walker body, the walker walked backward on upward slopes. With CoM largely shifted backward, the walker could walk up slopes but did not walk down slopes well. On the other hand, when walking along a contour line of a slope, the stride decreased as the slope angle increased. The smaller leg swing distances would be caused by the change of leg swing time on such slopes.

Keywords

bipedal walker bimetal thermal walker thermal actuator slope 

Full text is available at :

https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s42235-019-0044-1

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