Design and Development of a Compliant Knee Joint for Bipedal Robots
Disciplines
Applied Mechanics
Abstract (300 words maximum)
There is still an ongoing effort in the design and development of legged robots in the field of robotics. Bipedal robots can imitate the walking gait cycle, hopping, and jumping type locomotion. To accomplish the gait cycle, the four phases of the gait cycle as double support phase, the pre-swing phase, the single support phase, and the post-swing phase should be successfully alternated in a sequence. Compliant mechanisms have been utilized in biomimetic designs due to their inherent properties such as bending of their flexible members rather than joints when forced and their ability to be manufactured as a single piece. This work presents the design of a single-piece robotic knee consisting of upper and lower legs which are combined using a compliant rolling contact hinge to allow for vertical motion in the foot. The hip of the robot houses two stepper motors to actuate the legs, additional two stepper motors for the swing of the hip. Additionally, we developed MATLAB Simscape model of the robot for rapid motion analysis.
Academic department under which the project should be listed
SPCEET - Mechanical Engineering
Primary Investigator (PI) Name
Ayse Tekes
Design and Development of a Compliant Knee Joint for Bipedal Robots
There is still an ongoing effort in the design and development of legged robots in the field of robotics. Bipedal robots can imitate the walking gait cycle, hopping, and jumping type locomotion. To accomplish the gait cycle, the four phases of the gait cycle as double support phase, the pre-swing phase, the single support phase, and the post-swing phase should be successfully alternated in a sequence. Compliant mechanisms have been utilized in biomimetic designs due to their inherent properties such as bending of their flexible members rather than joints when forced and their ability to be manufactured as a single piece. This work presents the design of a single-piece robotic knee consisting of upper and lower legs which are combined using a compliant rolling contact hinge to allow for vertical motion in the foot. The hip of the robot houses two stepper motors to actuate the legs, additional two stepper motors for the swing of the hip. Additionally, we developed MATLAB Simscape model of the robot for rapid motion analysis.