- Gait stability
- Energetic optimality
- Compliant legged bipedal model
- Oscillatory characteristics of walking dynamics
- Control strategy of multi-joint, multi actuations
Although human walking is achieved by complicated control of multi-segmental & multi-actuated mechanism, the mechanics of the center of mass, the core of rigid body movement, is appeared to be a simple passive dynamics, which could be described by a collision of inverted pendulum or springy oscillation. The passive dynamic walking approach, therefore, could serve as a powerful theoretical framework to understand the mechanics of human walking. Due to the model simplicity, however, the current dynamic walking model, in part, lies under the limitations of qualitative description of the real human data rather than to be able to provide a quantitative prediction. Our research focuses on 1) developing a predictive collision model that quantitatively explains collision loss and their compensation, and further predict the energetically optimal gait, 2) understanding oscillatory behavior of the center of mass and the lower limb and proposing a model that quantitatively predicts the mechanics of lower limb for various walking conditions, and 3) exploring control strategy of multi-joint that achieves the previously observed simplified but predictive motion of the center of mass, all without the expense of significant model complication.
