Reconfigurable Parallel Walking Mechanisms for Interaction with the Environment

Legged robots are able to move across irregular terrains and those based on 1-degree-of-freedom planar linkages can be energy efficient, but are often constrained by a limited range of gaits which can limit their locomotion capabilities considerably. This article reports the design of novel reconfigurable parallel linkages that produce a variety of gait cycles, opening new possibilities for innovative applications. It is shown that such reconfigurable linkages significantly extend the capabilities of one degree-of-freedom planar parallel mechanisms to not only produce different useful walking patterns but also to realize behaviors beyond locomotion. Experiments with an implemented wearable device able to guide the lower extremity through multiple human-like walking trajectories is presented and the preliminary results validate the proposed approach. Here we would like to note that the main departure of this work from the state of the art in the area is that large solution spaces are generated using 1-degree-of-freedom planar linkages, producing gait variance via re-assembly.