Project Description
The purpose of this project is to investigate the advantages in energy consumption and acceleration that some lizards experience during motion when they actively enter a bipedal gait before natural rearing can occur. Prior research suggests that this active transition to a bipedal gait may occur in certain lizards, but offers no insight as to what advantages this behavior may offer over rearing naturally. The team hypothesized that lizards could achieve higher acceleration and lower energy consumption by initiating active rearing during motion. To test the two aspects of our proposed hypotheses, we designed and fabricated a robot capable of traveling in both quadrupedal and bipedal configurations.
