Analysis and experiment of flat-footed passive dynamic walker with ankle inerter

To use biped walking as a locomotion method, many researchers have studied biped robots achieving high-performance walking. Many latest biped robots have arc-shaped feet to achieve more high-performance walking. However, the biped robots have many problems due to the arc-shaped feet. To overcome these problems, flat feet with elasticity and viscosity at ankles have been proposed, and it was shown that biped robots with the flat feet achieve high-performance walking. In this paper, for biped robots to achieve more high-efficient and high-speed walking, we propose a novel foot of biped robots which has an inerter in addition to the spring and the damper at the ankle. By several simulations and experiments of passive dynamic walking, we show that the biped robot with our proposed flat feet realizes more excellent walking than conventional ones.