Paper Info
Title
Design and Open-Loop Control of the ParkourBot, a Dynamic Climbing Robot
Abstract
The ParkourBot climbs in a planar reduced-gravity vertical chute by leaping back and forth between the chute’s two parallel walls. The ParkourBot is comprised of a body with two springy legs and its controls consist of leg angles at touchdown and the energy stored in them. During flight, the robot stores elastic potential energy in its springy legs and then converts this potential energy in to kinetic energy at touchdown, when it “kicks off” a wall. This paper describes the ParkourBot’s mechanical design, modeling, and open-loop climbing experiments. The mechanical design makes use of the BowLeg, previously used for hopping on a flat ground. We introduce two models of the BowLeg ParkourBot: one is based on a nonzero stance duration using the spring-loaded inverted pendulum model, and the other is a simplified model (the simplest parkour model, or SPM) obtained as the leg stiffness approaches infinity and the stance time approaches zero. The SPM approximation provides the advantage of closed-form calculations. Finally, predictions of the models are validated by experiments in open-loop climbing in a reduced-gravity planar environment provided by an air table.
Year
DOI
Venue
2014
10.1109/TRO.2014.2300213
IEEE Transactions on Robotics
Keywords
Field
DocType
Legged locomotion,Mathematical model,Numerical models,Atmospheric modeling,Dynamics,Foot
Inverted pendulum,Control theory,Touchdown,Control engineering,Planar,Potential energy,Elastic energy,Robot,Climbing,Open-loop controller,Mathematics
Journal
Volume
Issue
ISSN
30
3
1552-3098
Citations 
PageRank 
References 
1
0.38
11
Authors
8
Name
Order
Citations
PageRank
Amir Degani13010.15
Andrew W. Long2282.07
Siyuan Feng387.34
H. Benjamin Brown47412.32
Robert D. Gregg517320.24
Howie Choset62826257.12
Matthew T Mason72102989.62
Kevin M. Lynch81515137.23