2008b). Controlling the walking speed in limit cycle walking

“Limit Cycle Walking ” is a relatively new paradigm for the design and control of two-legged walking robots. It states that achieving sta-ble periodic gait is possible without locally stabilizing the walking trajectory at every instant in time, as is traditionally done in most walking robots. Well-known examples of Limit Cycle Walkers are the Passive Dynamic Walkers, but recently there are also many actuated Limit Cycle Walkers. Limit Cycle Walkers generally use less energy than other existing bipeds, but thus far they have not been as ver-satile. This paper focuses on one aspect of versatility: walking speed. We study how walking speed can be varied, which way is energetically beneficial and how walking speed affects a walker’s ability to handle disturbances (that is, disturbance rejection). The study is performed using one prototype and one simulation model. The speed of these two walkers is adapted by changing three parameters: the amount o