Gaits and energetics in terrestrial legged locomotion

Abstract

In spite of the sustained worldwide efforts of the last few decades, the development of mobile robots with legs is mostly restricted to laboratories. The performances of these machines are far inferior to those of legged animals. In this paper, we study the observations made by various researchers on animal locomotion. This is done with the hope that engineers trying to design and develop legged robots would find such information useful. We focus our attention on the gaits of animals and the energy they consume for locomotion. (C) 2003 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.