Week 6 - BigDog

Exercise 1

1) If engineered or programmed badly, BigDog would fall over. Watch the full video again, and describe how BigDog's legs move while walking - ie. what is the sequence of leg movements for one complete step? Use the terms BL, BR, FL and FR for the back left, back right, front left and front right legs.

FL, FR, BL, BR.

2) Explain how this sequence of movements manages to balance BigDog's body weight.

When it is being kicked, the first movement was the front left leg stretched out so that it will be able to stabilize itself. Following that, the front right leg tries to support the body of the robot while both of the back legs are trying to stabilize its balance. Next, when the two legs in front crossed each other, the legs at the back try to support the robot so that it will not fall over. Last but not least, the back legs crossed each other while the front legs tried to support the robot before it finally balances itself and stabilizes its postion.

3) Look at BigDog_kick_slow_motion.mov. Draw a storyboard of BigDog stabilizing itself after being kicked.

(The storyboard is shown above.)

For the first frame, the back legs are crossing each other while the front left leg is stretched and the front right leg acts as a support.

For the second frame, the two legs in front are crossing each other while the back left leg is stretched and the back right leg is supporting the BigDog.

For the third frame, before the robot managed to get into balance once again, the back legs crossed once again while the two legs in front are trying to stabilize the robot.

For the final frame, it shows that the robot finally managed to get into position once again.