Berlin 2005 – scientific programme
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DY: Dynamik und Statistische Physik
DY 22: Networks
DY 22.1: Talk
Saturday, March 5, 2005, 11:30–11:45, TU H2032
Active Control of Bipedal Locomotion — •Joachim Hass1,2, J. Michael Herrmann1, and Theo Geisel1,2 — 1Georg-August-Universität Göttingen — 2MPI für Strömungsforschung
Passive walking machines can be realized by multiple inverted pendula with the pivot switching at each step. At small descending slopes walking cycles exist which are barely stable, but practically stability requires – in addition to fine-tuned parameters – an active suppression of perturbations. We show that control methods based on multi-step optimization of a discretized controller or on adaptive feedback are both effective in stabilizing the gait while relying only on adjusting damping constants. The energy consumption necessary e.g. at uphill motion can be controlled by the same methods. While the former method requires extensive training, the latter one adapts quickly and is realizable as a biologically plausible tuning scheme of a central pattern generator. After adaptation the CPG is sensitive to repeated features of the stride and may function as the target of high-level control. In addition we describe implications for the analysis of human gait and the control of leg prostheses.