Although wheeled locomotion provides better efficiency over distances there is no literature available on the value of wheeled methods with respect to tensegrity designs, nor on how to transition from a tensegrity structure to a fixed structure in mobile robotics.
It indicates that the serpentine locomotion has the highest efficiency because the snake robot doesn't have slide-back either at X- or Y-axis.
Experiments on a single ePaddle-EGM prototype module were conducted to validate the proposed mechanism design and the idea of deploying the non-reciprocating legged walking gait to improve locomotion accuracy and energetic efficiency of the robot.
One study [49] evaluating boot stiffness in the transverse plane found that a stiffer boot decreased the range of motion and eccentric energy absorption at the ankle, resulting in a compensatory gait change at the knee joint and decreased efficiency of locomotion.
The efficiency of locomotion however, may vary in birds with differing locomotor specialisations, with both morphology and gait influencing the cost of locomotion [13] [18].
This step-change in the efficiency of locomotion mirrors previous findings suggesting a postural cause for an apparent size dichotomy in the relationship between Emet and Mb.
Irrespective of the accuracy or otherwise of the force plate technique, however, the previous conclusion of mass dependent scaling of efficiency in locomotion [1], [2] is based upon it.
The data do indicate that the scaling of efficiency of locomotion, however, is generally less in the smaller animals (Fig. 2) indicating a size dependent step-change (from 7 to 26%) in efficiency, rather than a continuous linear relationship between efficiency and Mb.
