Passive walker that can walk down steps： simulations and experiments

A planar passive walking model with straight legs and round feet was discussed. This model can walk down steps, both on stairs with even steps and with random steps. Simulations showed that models with small moments of inertia can navigate large height steps. Period-doubling has been observed when the space between steps grows. This period-doubling has been validated by experiments, and the results of experiments were coincident with the simulation.     

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简单回顾了被动行走的发展,建立了无量纲形式的平面直腿圆弧足被动行走动力学 模型,详细介绍了被动行走模型仿真的步骤. 并且采用胞胞映射计算得到该圆弧足模型的吸 引盆,发现该模型的吸引盆大于以前研究者研究的点状足模型的吸引盆. 这表明在初始状态 变量偏离不动点很大时,模型仿真仍可收敛到稳定的步态,即该模型具有较高的鲁棒性.     

三维单向拉伸马蹄的寻找及其在Compass行走模型中的应用

对三维映射,因维数较高,混沌吸引子结构复杂.根据混沌吸引子维数相对较低的特点,在选定不稳定周期轨的附近,对吸引子的局部进行曲面拟合,提出了三维空间中单向拉伸拓扑马蹄的“降维-升维”寻找方法,并实现为MATLAB工具箱.以Compass行走模型为例,详细介绍拓扑马蹄的寻找过程,判定了混沌步态的存在性,刻画了混沌不变集的部分结构.     

Reciprocal contribution analysis of the left and right hips while walking

The physical posture of even healthy university students is easy to collapse when walking with textbooks and other heavy loads during university attendance. Consequently, they may experience lower-back pain or knee pain. However, the resulting burden of this stress to the left and right lower-back has not previously been quantitatively analyzed.In this study, we employed a Relative Power Contribution (RPC) analysis approach to quantitatively investigate and compare the reciprocal contribution between the left and right lower-backs while walking with a bag and without a bag. Quantitative data were collected by two accelerometers installed on the subjects.Results for the subjects walking with and without a bag indicated that the contribution of the left and right lower-backs decreased by up to 21% (p<0.05). Some disorder occurs in the feedback relations of the movement in both lower-backs and as a result, it was understood to cause much discomfort in these areas.This analysis reveals the quantitative relations of left and right lower-backs, which are difficult to discern from the original data. The results can be useful for preventive healthcare for lower-back and knee pains.     

Water strider-inspired design of a water walking robot using superhydrophobic Al surface

Abstract

Aquatic microrobots, which can walk freely on water mimicking water striders, have attracted considerable interest among scientists in biomimetic area. Most of previous water strider robots adopted gear pairs as their driving mechanism, which called for high assembly precision and thereby increased the processing difficulty. Here, a novel and simple method using servos as the driving module to prepare water walking robot was proposed. We fabricated this robot by using supporting and actuating legs with excellent superhydrophobicity. Our robot weighted 27.9?g, but could float and run quickly driven by mini-type servos under remote Bluetooth control in mobile terminal. The legs were obtained on Al substrates by chemical etching, boiling-water immersion and low surface energy modification. Then, surface morphology and chemical compositions were subsequently investigated by SEM, EDS and XRD. In order to better illustrate the floating and rowing mechanism of this robot on the water surface, mechanics analysis models were proposed to analyze the lifting force and resistance force, respectively. Due to its excellent floating capacity and rowing ability, the biomimetic robot has promising application potential in water quality monitoring, aquatic exploration, and other surveillance missions.     

Directional quantum random walk induced by coherence

Quantum walk (QW), which is considered as the quantum counterpart of the classical random walk (CRW), is actually the quantum extension of CRW from the single-coin interpretation. The sequential unitary evolution engenders correlation between different steps in QW and leads to a non-binomial position distribution. In this paper, we propose an alternative quantum extension of CRW from the ensemble interpretation, named quantum random walk (QRW), where the walker has many unrelated coins, modeled as two-level systems, initially prepared in the same state. We calculate the walker's position distribution in QRW for different initial coin states with the coin operator chosen as Hadamard matrix. In one-dimensional case, the walker's position is the asymmetric binomial distribution. We further demonstrate that in QRW, coherence leads the walker to perform directional movement. For an initially decoherenced coin state, the walker's position distribution is exactly the same as that of CRW. Moreover, we study QRW in 2D lattice, where the coherence plays a more diversified role in the walker's position distribution.