The vertical hopping control for a one-legged hopping robot is an essential problem in the study of balanced legged machines that walk and run. The field of dynamically stable legged locomotion has made great strides in 1980s, led primarily by Marc Raibert. The study of one-legged hopping problem has fascinated many scholars and researchers since then.
Following a review of the literature, a generic one-legged robot model is developed. Two models are presented one is the full model and the other one is only for the vertical hopping. The two phases and four events in a hopping cycle is defined. Control can only be applied during the stance period.
Four control algorithms that regulate the one-legged robot's hopping height are presented and simulation results are shown. They are energy based control (EBC), near inverse method (NIM), linear quadratic regulator (LQR) and PD control.