Feedback equivalence of the chained mechanical system to the almost linear form and its use for the sustainable multi-step walking design

Abstract

The main theoretical novelty of this paper is the state and feedback equivalence of the underactuated 4-degrees of freedom planar walking-like mechanical chain system with 3 actuators to its 8-dimensional almost linear form with 3 virtual inputs. Moreover, the only residual nonlinearity vanishes on the 4-dimensional linear subspace being forward invariant when 2 of 3 virtual inputs are set to be zero. Dynamics inside that subsystem is actually the chain of 4 integrators fed by the remaining single virtual input and it can be interpreted as a rich variety of synchronous movements of torsos and legs. In such a way, the seemingly abstract and purely theoretical result can be used to design the walking-like movement during the single-support phase. The impact effect during the impulsive-like double-support phase is then attenuated by further special trajectories tuning and finite-time stabilization technique which provides the sustainable multi-step walking design. Moreover, the target walking-like trajectory is attracted by nearby trajectories. This further justify the importance and usefulness of the mentioned state and feedback equivalence. Its viability is further demonstrated by the simulations of various scenarios of the walking-like movement and the respective torsos behaviors.