Reddit reviews Principles of Animal Locomotion

Principles of animal locomotion by R. McNeill Alexander. I haven't read all of it, but my professor swears by it.

http://www.amazon.com/Principles-Animal-Locomotion-McNeill-Alexander/dp/0691126348/ref=sr_1_5?ie=UTF8&qid=1334073029&sr=8-5

For very fundamental information, I recommend Principles of Animal Locomotion. This isn't a book about algorithms, though; it's more of a book about the underlying dynamics of locomotion (bipedal and otherwise).


There are a lot of different approches to gait, both dynamically and statically stable. You'll find many in academic literature (proceedings of CLAWAR, IROS, and AAAI are good places to start). Papers related to the recent DARPA Robotics Challenge, and old but seminal work like Spring Flamingo and the DARPA Adaptive Suspension Vehicle are also good starting points.



Unfortunately the people on the forefront of this field don't publish their results.