Locomotion

Static Gait

A static gait is a legged locomotion pattern that maintains static stability throughout: the robot's center of mass projection stays inside the support polygon formed by the feet in contact at every instant, so motion can be paused at any point without falling. Quadruped crawl gaits, which move one leg at a time while three remain planted, are the canonical example. Static gaits are slow but robust, whereas dynamic gaits accept transient instability for speed.

Why it matters for physical AI

Statically stable walking remains the safe fallback for legged platforms carrying payloads or traversing uncertain terrain, and the static-dynamic distinction frames the entire design space of gait controllers.