2D ENERGY-EFFICIENT HOPPING ROBOT

This paper presents the design of a 2D hopping robot, which is characterized for having a dual drive that offers three significant advantages: firstly, it enables the compensation of losses during the flight phase; secondly, it has dual properties that allow adaptation of the transmission ratio for two different motions, one on the stance phase and other during the flight phase; thirdly, it provides a nonlinear transmission ratio that noticeably reduces the energy expenses. The control system for this prototype is decomposed into a hop height control problem and a horizontal velocity control problem. Some preliminary experimental tests have been carried out in order to assess the resonant behaviour of the 2D hopping robot, as well as to validate the benefits of the proposed design.