DESIGN, CONTROL, AND ENERGETICS OF AN ELECTRICALLY ACTUATED LEGGED ROBOT

To study the design, control and energetics of autonomous dynamically stable legged machines we have built a planar one-legged robot, the AR L Monopod. Its top running speed of 1.3 km/h (1.2 mis) makes it the fa stest electrically actuated legged robot to date, We adapted Raibert's control laws for the low power electric actuation necessary for auton omous locomotion and performed a detailed energetic analysis of our ex periments. A comparison shows that the ARL Monopod with its 125 W aver age power consumption is more energy efficient than previously built r obots.