Incorporating Leg Recirculation in the Lateral Leg Spring Model of Insect Locomotion

摘要

The lateral leg spring (LLS) model, introduced in [1] and extended in [2], has been proposed as a reduced-order template of insect locomotion dynamics in the horizontal plane. The model has been shown to qualitatively reproduce the force, velocity and moment profiles exhibited by the cockroach Blaberus discoidalis during fast locomotion [3], have relevance to other species or sprawled-posture insects through analysis of non-dimensional parameters [4], and exhibit partially asymptotically stable gaits without significant neural feedback [1-4]. In this work, we extend the previous LLS models by incorporating a leg recirculation policy. The leg recirculation policy introduced here will prescribe the angular velocity of the swing leg during the stance phase of the opposite leg, therefore providing a means to return the swing leg to a prescribed angle at the start of its stance phase. In this work, we analyze the performance of the LLS model with a leg recirculation policy, and determine the effects of this policy on gait stability.