The choice of gait, that is, whether we are walking or running, is a very natural thing for us. We have not even thought about it. We walk slowly and run fast. If we slowly accelerate on the treadmill, we will slowly walk from the beginning and become a certain point of running; all this happens spontaneously, because it feels more comfortable.

How to get robot gait to reduce energy consumption

We have become accustomed to this, and when we see someone on the Olympic track quickly walks, it will be particularly interesting. Almost all animals will automatically choose the gait, although sometimes the gait is different. For example, horses often walk at a slow speed, gallop at medium speed, and ride at high speeds. What makes us think that walking at low speed is suitable for running? How do we know that we must change our choices and why do we not jump or ride like horses? What constitutes walking, running, trotting, galloping, and other gait that can be found in nature?

And motion laboratory robot (RAM-Lab) of the University of Michigan, Dr. C. David Remy led the research team is very interested in this and related issues, the reason is very simple: they want to build agile, fast and energy-legged robot. The ability to use an out-of-sync state may be a key factor in this task because the benefits to humans and animals may be equally beneficial to legged robots.

How to get robot gait to reduce energy consumption

This is still a big “possible” because we currently don’t know if using different footwork will actually pay off, or if the robot’s proper gait looks like. Will they walk or run in some form or something totally different?

In nature, biomechanical studies have shown that the choice of gait is closely related to the energy costs of transportation. This cost shows how many calories need to be consumed to move a particular distance. For many animals, this is an important measure. Food is often a scarce resource. Efficient exercise may be the key to survival.

To understand the effect of gait on transportation costs, researchers can estimate energy consumption by measuring the amount of oxygen that a person or animal consumes while walking in an asynchronous state. Using this technique has shown that at low speeds, less energy is needed to walk, and at high altitudes, the energy used for running is less.

To see if robots can also achieve the same energy savings, Dr. Remy's team uses large-scale numerical optimization. That is, after establishing a computer model of a legged robot, they basically required an algorithm to automatically find the most effective economic way forward. In other words, they found a movement that minimized costs.

The computer simply solves this problem in a systematic way, using any possible way of moving the model legs forward. The results of these optimizations are very significant. Even if the computer does not have a previous concept of walking, running, or gait, the best movements that occur through this process are very similar to the gait and gait sequences found in nature.

By changing the target speed of each movement, the best gait sequence can then be identified. The surprising discovery is that there is basically no surprise: in order to move with as little energy as possible, bipedal robots should walk at low speeds and run at high speed; quadruped robots have to walk, gallop and gallop. It is worth noting that despite the great differences in structure and movement between animals and robots, this result was still found.

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