Patent ID: 7228923

Claim:
A landing shock absorbing device of a legged mobile robot moving by lifting and landing motions of a plurality of legs that can make contact with the ground through a ground-contacting face portion of a foot mechanism, respectively, comprising: a variable capacity element provided in the foot mechanism of each leg, each variable capacity element being compressed by undergoing a floor reaction force during the landing motion of an associated leg and being inflatable when no longer undergoing the floor reaction force at least by the lifting motion of the associated leg, thereby allowing compressible fluid to flow into the variable capacity element with the inflation thereof and to flow out of an interior portion of the variable capacity element with the compression thereof, and an inflow/outflow means for communicating the compressible fluid into the variable capacity element while inflating the variable capacity element in a lifting state of the associated leg and for communicating the compressible fluid out of the variable capacity element with the compression of the variable capacity element caused by the floor reaction force, wherein outflow resistance is generated during the outflow of the compressible fluid from the variable capacity element by the inflow/outflow means, and wherein the inflow/outflow means is configured such that inflow resistance of the compressible fluid into the variable capacity element is lower than outflow resistance of the compressible fluid from the variable capacity element.