Toward Elucidation of the Walking Mechanism of Horses through Limb Anatomy and Robotic Reproduction

Understanding the locomotion mechanism of the horse, which is capable of highly efficient walking among mammals, can contribute not only to the development of biology but also to the improvement of the performance of conventional quadruped robots. In order to understand the highly efficient running ability of the horse, this study has previously investigated the function of passive muscle and tendon structures in the horse during walking, using a robotic model to reproduce and understand the internal structure of the horse. In this paper, followed by the hindlimb model, we report on a walking phenomenon of a forelimb robot only with a sinusoidal oscillation of the shoulder joint.