The first chapter of this book traces the history of the development of walking machines from the original ideas of man-amplifiers and military rough-ground transport to today's diverse academic and industrial research and development projects. It concludes with a brief account of research on other unusual methods of locomotion. The heart of the book is the next three chapters on the theory and engineering of legged robots. Chapter 2 presents the basics of land loco- motion, going on to consider the energetics of legged movement and the description and classification of gaits. Chapter 3,...