A Bipedal Robot with an Energy Transfer Mechanism between Legs: A Pilot Study

Humans' adaptability to overcome the continuous changes of the environment is a result of their bodies' ability to change the way it interacts with the given situation. Therefore, augmenting robots with adaptable behavior, requires to exploit the possible dynamics emerging from the different interactions among all parts of their bodies. From this perspective, here in this pilot study, we developed a simple structure bipedal robot that enables a mutual interaction between its legs through an actuator network system (ANS). With this mechanism, the robot was enabled to transfer energy between its legs during locomotion. And as the experimental results showed, in terms of the roll motion and the vertical oscillation of the robot's body, the robot was able to produce a more stable locomotion behavior with mutually connected legs compared to other types of independent legs that do not have the ability to interact with each other.