Stepping Forward Action for Biped Robot Based on Acceleration Control of the Center of Mass

Abstract

In this paper, we propose a novel approach for stepping forward action of biped robot with minimum kicking force. In walking or starting to walk, the general biped robot kicks the ground with its own hind leg as well as human being does. The condition of the ground often restricts the gait because of stiffness, slipperiness and so on. In order to surmount the difficulty on stepping forward action, we introduce the redundant legged biped robot, which has 4 degree-of-freedoms on each leg. Our robot enables to move its tip position and its center of mass (COM) position independently. Controlling COM acceleration without moving its tip position realizes the stepping forward action with little kicking force. The physical experimental results show the significant validity of the proposed approach.