Walking Wheel

Abstract

A hypothesis was proposed that during the bipedal walking, there appear stable periodic movements in certain variables (self-oscillations). In this case, it is possible to easily change parameters of this periodic locomotion using open (without feedback) control loops with respect to some of the variables. As the first stage in testing this hypothesis, dynamics of the walking wheel downward movement along an inclined plane was analytically studied. Walking wheel is the simplest model of passive bipedal walking. When it moves, energy is supplied to the system due to the force of gravity action. It is shown that point mapping of the wheel angular speed alteration per step (Poincare map) in the overwhelming majority of cases has one fixed point. This fixed point corresponds either to stable periodic solution (self-oscillation), which is the wheel rolling down an inclined plane, or to the wheel movement ending with its termination as a result of the endless series of impacts with swinging on two legs. In the degenerate case, the Poincare map has two fixed points. One of them corresponds to the unstable limiting cycle matching the wheel rolling, and the second corresponds to a wheel stop. In this case, the limiting cycle is stable outside and unstable inside itself