Adaptive Walking Research Articles

The evolution of human bipedality: ecology and functional morphology

Contexts that elicit bipedalism in extant apes may provide evidence of the selective pressures that led to hominid bipedalism. Bipedalism was observed most commonly among chimpanzees when they fed on the small fruits of diminutive, open-forest trees. Chimpanzees fed bipedally from such trees either by reaching up to pick fruit while standing on the ground, or from within the tree, in which case bipedalism was frequently stabilized by grasping an overhead branch. The food-gathering function of chimpanzee bipedalism suggests that hominid bipedalism may have evolved in conjunction with arm-hanging as a specialized feeding adaptation that allowed for efficient harvesting of fruits among open-forest or woodland trees. Such evidence is particularly valuable when it is in accord with fossil anatomy. Australopithecus afarensis has features of the hand, shoulder and torso that have been related to arm-hanging in chimpanzees. The australopithecine hip and hind limb clearly indicate bipedalism, but also indicate a less than optimal adaptation to bipedal locomotion compared to modern humans. Locomotor inefficiency supports the hypothesis that bipedalism evolved more as a terrestrial feeding posture than as a walking adaptation. A bipedal postural feeding adaptation may have been a preadaptation for the fully realized locomotor bipedalism apparent in Homo erectus.

Study of lower level adaptive walking in the sagittal plane by a biped locomotion robot

Walking according to changes in the environment is called adaptive walking. We define lower level adaptive walking as a walk consisting only of trajectory control and walk-pattern generation. The purpose of this study was to realize lower level adapting walking in the sagittal plane by a biped locomotion robot in indoor space. In this paper, we propose a simplified procedure of walk-pattern generation, which is that walk patterns for various environments are generated by adjusting and combining the basic walk patterns which have previously been given for typical environments. Based on this idea, walking experiments were carried out for various environments. As a result, dynamic walking in a flat plane (about 1.5 s/step with a 0.3 m step width), changes of the step width in walking, and walking in various environments combined from a flat plane, an obstacle (such as a pipe) and a stair (up and down) were realized.

Arthritis and Adaptive Walking and Running

No longer is rest or inactivity a password for arthritis. Arthritics are now being encouraged to walk, then run--it's part of the exercise continuum that imparts health to many components of the body, including the joints and their support tissues. Joint impact loads during running are less of a concern, whereas flexibility as a shock absorber is more important. The debate on immobilization versus mobilization definitely has shifted to the latter. Much has been learned from sports medicine that can turn a rheumatologist into a "coach."

二足歩行ロボットによるＳａｇｉｔｔａｌ ｐｌａｎｅ内の下位レベル適応歩行に関する研究

Walking according to change of various environments is called an adaptive walking. We define the lower level adaptive walking as a walk consisted of only trajectory control and walk-patern generating. The purpose of this study is to realize the lower level adaptive walking in sagittal plane by a biped locomotion robot in indoor space.In this paper, we propose a simplified procedure of walk-pattern generation as follows that walk-patterns for various environments are generated by adjusting and combining the basic walk-patterns which are previously given for typical environments. Based on this idea, walking experiments are carried out for various environments. As a result, dynamic walking in flat plane (about 1.5 second per a step with 0.3 m), change of step width in walking and walk in various combined environments of flat plane, an obstacle as pipe and a stair (up, down) are realized.

Control of Adaptive Walking Robot

New results on the development of adaptive walking robots and their control systems are presented. The previously implemented lower level of the control system is now elaborated to solve two new problems - the locomotion over a soft soil and over a complex terrain. To move over a soft soil the force distribution between legs is introduced into lower level control. for the rough terrain locomotion a vision guidance is implemented as upper level of the control system, experimental results and plans for future are presented

Adaptive Locomotion of a Multilegged Robot over Rough Terrain

Although the off-road mobility characteristics of wheeled or tracked vehicles are generally recognized as being inferior to those of man and cursorial animals, the complexity of the joint-coordination control problem has thus far frustrated attempts to achieve improved vehicular terrain adaptability through the application of legged locomotion concepts. Nevertheless, the evident superiority of biological systems in this regard has motivated a number of theoretical studies over the past decade which have now reached a state of maturity sufficient to permit the construction of experimental computer-controlled adaptive walking machines. At least two such vehicles are known to have recently demonstrated legged locomotion over smooth hard-surfaced terrain. This paper is concerned with an extension of the present theory of limb coordination for such machines to the case in which the terrain includes regions not suitable for weight-bearing and which must consequently be avoided by the control computer in deciding when and where to successively place the feet of the vehicle. The paper includes a complete problem formalization, a heuristic algorithm for solution of the problem thus posed, and a preliminary evaluation of the proposed algorithm in terms of a computer simulation study.

An equation for prediction of energy expenditure of walking and running.

An equation for prediction of energy expenditure of walking and running.