Prediction of stable walking for a toy that cannot stand

Phys Rev E Stat Nonlin Soft Matter Phys. 2001 Aug;64(2 Pt 1):022901. doi: 10.1103/PhysRevE.64.022901. Epub 2001 Jul 20.

Abstract

Previous experiments [M. J. Coleman and A. Ruina, Phys. Rev. Lett. 80, 3658 (1998)] showed that a gravity-powered toy with no control and that has no statically stable near-standing configurations can walk stably. We show here that a simple rigid-body statically unstable mathematical model based loosely on the physical toy can predict stable limit-cycle walking motions. These calculations add to the repertoire of rigid-body mechanism behaviors as well as further implicating passive dynamics as a possible contributor to stability of animal motions.

MeSH terms

  • Animals
  • Biomechanical Phenomena
  • Gait / physiology*
  • Gravitation
  • Humans
  • Models, Anatomic*
  • Motion
  • Play and Playthings
  • Postural Balance / physiology*
  • Posture / physiology
  • Walking / physiology*