Ascending and descending stairs for a biped robot

Abstract

This paper synthesizes an efficient walking pattern for a practical biped robot when ascending and descending stairs. The main features of the biped robot include variable length legs and a translatable balance weight in the body. The biped robot's walk is a mixture of both statically stable and dynamically stable modes and relies on some degrees of static stability provided by large feet and by carefully controlling the center of gravity's position. The paper describes the design and experiment of a 7-DOF practical biped which is capable of ascending and descending stairs, and the synthesis of an efficient walking gait for ascending and descending stairs. Our biped robot is one of the few biped walking machines capable of ascending and descending stairs.