Ballistic flip of a planar one-legged robot in simulation

The typical locomotive gaits of previous one-legged robots are imitations of some animal´s motions (e.g., a kangaroo´s hop). As a result of million years of evolution, animals´ motion forms may be optimal for their particular flexible structures. However, their motion manners may be not the best option in the case of man-made mechanical structures mainly composed of rigid hardware. Therefore, from an engineering viewpoint, we propose a novel conception of one-legged flip locomotion that seems straightforward and streamline for a simple one-legged biped. By means of nonlinear feedback control and Poincare map method, cyclic flip gaits of this robot model are found in simulation.