ABSTRACT
This chapter provides an overview of the key design decisions that went into the conception and construction of RABBIT. It considers RABBIT’s lateral stabilization is ensured by a rotating bar and thus only 2D motion in the sagittal plane. RABBIT was conceived to have the simplest mechanical structure that is representative of human walking. The requirement of mechanical simplicity naturally led to restricting its motion to the sagittal plane, with lateral stabilization being achieved by external means. For the RABBIT project, a mechanism design was sought that would enable running as well as walking. RABBIT was designed to be able to walk with an average forward speed of at least 5 km/h and to run at more than 12 km/h. In the case of RABBIT, the approximate bandwidth of the mechanical portion of each actuated joint is 12 Hz, and approximately 250 Hz for the amplifiers. Because RABBIT is an experimental apparatus, a maximal sensor set was installed.
