DYNAMICS OF BIPEDAL GAIT .2. STABILITY ANALYSIS OF A PLANAR 5-LINK BIPED

A general approach based on discrete mapping techniques is presented t o study stability of bipedal locomotion. The approach overcomes diffic ulties encountered by others on the treatment of discontinuities and n onlinearities associated with bipedal gait. A five-element bipedal loc omotion model with proper parametric formulation is considered to demo nstrate the utility of the proposed approach. Changes in the stability of the biped as a result of bifurcations in the four-dimensional para meter space are investigated. The structural stability analysis uncove red stable gait patterns that conform to the prescribed motion. Stable nonsymmetric locomotion with multiple periodicity was also observed, a phenomenon that has never been considered before. Graphical represen tation of the bifurcations are presented for direct correlation of the parameter space with the resulting walking patterns. The bipedal mode l includes some idealizations such as neglecting the dynamics of the f eet and assuming rigid bodies. Some additional simplifications were pe rformed in the development of the controller that regulates the motion of the biped.