Multi-link mechanical locomotors in natural gaits - controller design and experiments

Recently, a so-called natural oscillation gait was studied for multi-link systems and a class of biologically inspired controllers was designed for the achievement of the gait. In this paper, the theoretical design is applied on a mechanical multi-link testbed of two posture configurations in rayfish-like flapping-wing motion and snake-like serpentine motion. The effectiveness of the design is cross examined by theoretical analysis, numerical simulation, and experiments.