Influence of the swing ankle angle on walking stability for a passive dynamic walking robot with flat feet

To achieve high walking stability for a passive dynamic walking robot is not easy. In this article, we aim to investigate whether the walking performance for a passive dynamic walking robot can be improved by just simply changing the swing ankle angle before impact. To validate this idea, a passive bipedal walking model with two straight legs, two flat feet, a hip joint, and two ankle joints was built in this study. The walking dynamics that contains double stance phase was derived. By numerical simulation of the walking in MATLAB, we found that the walking performance can be adjusted effectively by only simply changing the swing ankle angle before impact. A bigger swing ankle angle in a reasonable range will lead to a higher walking stability and a lower initial walking speed of the next step. A bigger swing ankle angle before impact leads to a bigger amount of energy lost during impact for the quasi-passive dynamic walking robot which will influence the walking stability of the next step