Multisensor foot mechanism with shock absorbing material for dynamic biped walking adapting to unknown uneven surfaces

Abstract

The authors introduce a multisensor foot mechanism with shock absorbing material and an adaptive biped walking control method to adapt to path surfaces with unknown shapes by utilizing the information of the landing surface, obtained by the foot mechanism. The new foot has three main functions: (1) a function to obtain the position relative to a landing surface and the gradient of the surface during its dynamic walking, (2) a function to absorb the shock of the foot landing, (3) a function to stabilize changes in the support leg. Two units of the foot system WAF-3 were produced, a biped walking robot WL-12RVII that had the foot system and the adaptive walking control system installed inside it was developed, and a walking experiment with WL-12RVII was performed. As a result, dynamic biped walking adapting to human floors with unknown shapes was realized. The maximum walking speed was 1.28 s/step with a 0.3 m step length, and the adaptable deviation range was from -16 to +16 mm/step in the vertical direction, and from -3 to +3/spl deg/ in the tilt angle.