Design of Reconfigurable Articulated Walking Mechanisms for Diverse Motion Behaviors

Abstract Legged robots are able to move across irregular terrains and those based on 1-degree-of-freedom planar linkages can be energy efficient but are often constrained by a limited range of gaits which can limit their locomotion capabilities considerably. This article reports the design of novel reconfigurable parallel linkages that not only produce different walking patterns but also realize behaviors beyond locomotion. Experiments with an implemented wearable device able to guide the lower extremity through multiple human-like walking trajectories are presented and the preliminary results validate the proposed approach.