Energy Conservative Limit Cycle Oscillations

This paper shows how globally attractive limit cycle oscillations can be induced in a system with a nonlinear feedback element. Based on the same principle as the Van der Pol oscillator, the feedback behaves as a negative damping for low velocities but as an ordinary damper for high velocities. This nonlinear damper can be physically implemented with a continuous variable transmission and a spring, storing energy in the spring when the damping is positive and reusing it when the damping is negative. The resulting mechanism has a natural limit cycle oscillation that is energy conservative and can be used for the development of robust, dynamic walking robots