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Swing leg retraction helps biped walking stability
M. Wisse, C. Atkeson, and D.K. Kloimwieder
5th IEEE-RAS International Conference on Humanoid Robots, December, 2005, pp. 295 - 300.

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In human walking, the swing leg moves backward just prior to ground contact, i.e. the relative angle between the thighs is decreasing. We hypothesized that this swing leg retraction may have a positive effect on gait stability, because similar effects have been reported in passive dynamic walking models, in running models, and in robot juggling. For this study, we use a simple inverted pendulum model for the stance leg. The swing leg is assumed to accurately follow a time-based trajectory. The model walks down a shallow slope for energy input which is balanced by the impact losses at heel strike. With this model we show that a mild retraction speed indeed improves stability, while gaits without a retraction phase (the swing leg keeps moving forward) are consistently unstable. By walking with shorter steps or on a steeper slope, the range of stable retraction speeds increases, suggesting a better robustness. The conclusions of this paper are therefore twofold; (1) use a mild swing leg retraction speed for better stability, and (2) walking faster is easier.

Number of pages: 6

M. Wisse, C. Atkeson, and D.K. Kloimwieder, "Swing leg retraction helps biped walking stability," 5th IEEE-RAS International Conference on Humanoid Robots, December, 2005, pp. 295 - 300.

@inproceedings{Wisse_2005_5602,
   author = "Martijn Wisse and Chris Atkeson and D.K. Kloimwieder",
   title = "Swing leg retraction helps biped walking stability",
   booktitle = "5th IEEE-RAS International Conference on Humanoid Robots",
   month = "December",
   year = "2005",
   pages = "295 - 300"
}