Dynamics and optimal control of a legged robot in flight phase

A discussion is presented of the control of legged-robot body orientation in flight using the internal motion of the leg. The angular momentum constraint (nonholonomic) is used to recast the problem into a nonholonomic motion planning problem. Chow´s theorem is then applied to verify that the system is controllable, and the concept of holonomy is introduced for constructing an optimal path. Finally, linearization control is used in the internal motion space to realize the planned path. An additional degree of control to dynamically balance a legged robot that runs is provided with this strategy