title: Human-like compliant locomotion: state of the art of robotic implementations.
abstract: This review paper provides a synthetic yet critical overview of the key biomechanical principles of human bipedal walking and their current implementation in robotic platforms. We describe the functional role of human joints, addressing in particular the relevance of the compliant properties of the different degrees of freedom throughout the gait cycle. We focused on three basic functional units involved in locomotion, i.e. the ankle-foot complex, the knee, and the hip-pelvis complex, and their relevance to whole-body performance. We present an extensive review of the current implementations of these mechanisms into robotic platforms, discussing their potentialities and limitations from the functional and energetic perspectives. We specifically targeted humanoid robots, but also revised evidence from the field of lower-limb prosthetics, which presents innovative solutions still unexploited in the current humanoids. Finally, we identified the main critical aspects of the process of translating human principles into actual machines, providing a number of relevant challenges that should be addressed in future research.
authors.affiliation: Neural Rehabilitation Group, Cajal Institute, Spanish National Research Council (CSIC), Avda Doctor Arce, 37, E-28002 Madrid, Spain.
authors.forename: Diego
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Torricelli
authors.forename: Jose
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Gonzalez
authors.forename: Maarten
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Weckx
authors.forename: René
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Jiménez-Fabián
authors.forename: Bram
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Vanderborght
authors.forename: Massimo
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Sartori
authors.forename: Strahinja
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Dosen
authors.forename: Dario
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Farina
authors.forename: Dirk
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Lefeber
authors.forename: Jose L
authors.initials: JL
authors.lastname: Pons
mesh_terms: D000843:Ankle Joint / Q000502:physiology; D001186:Artificial Limbs; D001696:Biomechanical Phenomena; D032701:Biomimetics; D033023:Foot Joints / Q000502:physiology; D005684:Gait / Q000502:physiology; D006621:Hip Joint / Q000502:physiology; D006801:Humans; D007719:Knee Joint / Q000502:physiology; D007866:Leg; D008124:Locomotion / Q000502:physiology*; D010384:Pelvic Bones; D012371:Robotics; D016138:Walking / Q000502:physiology