Hysteresis in the gait transition of a quadruped investigated using simple body mechanical and oscillator network models.

We investigated the dynamics of quadrupedal locomotion by constructing a simple quadruped model that consists of a body mechanical model and an oscillator network model. The quadruped model has front and rear bodies connected by a waist joint with a torsional spring and damper system and four limbs controlled by command signals from the oscillator network model. The simulation results reveal that the quadruped model produces various gait patterns through dynamic interactions among the body mechanical system, the oscillator network system, and the environment. They also show that it undergoes a gait transition induced by changes in the waist joint stiffness and the walking speed. In addition, the gait pattern transition exhibits a hysteresis similar to that observed in human and animal locomotion. We examined the hysteresis mechanism from a dynamic viewpoint.