Robo-Rats Locomotion: Biped

Bipedal locomotion is locomotion using two legs.  When done by humans, bipedal locomotion is not statically stable.  However, it is possible to do statically stable bipedal locomotion.  To accomplish this, the walking motion must be done relatively slowly and the robot must be able to balance on one foot.  The latter is usually done by making the foot very large--much larger than is necessary in humans, for example.  The feet used on walking wind-up toys is a good example, they are very wide in order to keep the downward projection of the center of gravity within the foot area. Note the protrusions on the feet of the wind-up toy shown below.  They prevent the toy from tipping when it is balanced on one foot.  Another way to increase stability is to make the center of gravity as low as possible.

Below is a photo of the H6 humanoid robot developed at the Inoue-Inaba Laboratory at the University of Tokyo.  Although this robot looks very human-like, it walks with static stability.

Motors:

Depends on architecture - An anthropomorphic design may have five or more motors per leg.

Pros:

Versatility - A bipedal locomotion system should be able to negotiate any terrain a human can.

Cons:

Complexity - The large number of DOFs makes the design difficult to implement.

Control - If static stability is required, then movement must be slow and precise.  If dynamic stability is used, real-time processing is critical.

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Last modified: 04/04/01 22:30