Bifurcation and chaos of a simple walking model driven by a rhythmic signal

The walk of animals is achieved by the interaction between the dynamics of their mechanical system and the central pattern generator (CPG). In this paper, we analyze dynamic properties of a simple walking model of a biped robot driven by a rhythmic signal from an oscillator. In particular, we examine the long-term global behavior and the bifurcation of the motion that leads to chaotic motion, depending on the model parameter values. The simple model consists of a hip and two legs connected at the hip through a rotational joint. The joint is driven by a rhythmic signal from an oscillator, which is an open loop. In order to analyze the bifurcation, we first obtained approximate solutions of the walking motion and then constructed discrete dynamics using the Poincare map. As a result, we found that consecutive period-doubling bifurcations occur as the model parameter values change, and that the walking motion leads to chaotic motion over the critical value of the model parameters. Moreover, we approximately obtained the period-doubling solutions and the critical value by employing a Newton-Raphson method. Our analytical results were verified by the numerical simulations. (c) 2005 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.