Mowgli: A Bipedal Jumping and Landing Robot with an Artificial Musculoskeletal System

Abstract

Jumping and landing movements are characterized by large instantaneous forces, short duration, and a high uncertainty concerning take off and landing points. Such characteristics make conventional types of control and robot design inadequate. Here we present an approach to realize motor control of jumping and landing which exploits the synergy between control and mechanical structure. Our experimental system is a pneumatically actuated bipedal robot called "Mowgli". Mowgli's artificial musculoskeletal system consists of six McKibben pneumatic muscle actuators including bi-articular muscle and two legs with hip, knee, and ankle joints. Mowgli can reach jump heights of more than 50% of its body height and can land softly. Our results show a proximo-distal sequence of joint extensions during jumping despite simultaneous motor activity. Extensions in the whole body motion are caused by the compliance and the natural dynamics of the legs. In addition to the experiments with the real robot, we also simulated two types of open loop controllers for vertical jumping with disturbance. We found that the model controlled by open loop motor command through a muscle-tendon mechanism could jump robustly. The simulation results demonstrate the contribution of the artificial musculoskeletal system as a physical feedback loop in explosive movements.