Whole body motion generation of a humanoid robot using a predifined reaction force

Abstract

We propose a method to generate natural-speed stable motion for a humanoid robot to push or pull an object. In our daily life, we often perform pushing and pulling motions, for example, opening/closing doors, refrigerators, and drawers. Several studies on opening a door using a humanoid robot have been conducted, however, because no prior knowledge about the environment was used in these studies, the motions generated were slower than human motion. To speed up these motions, we propose to use a predifined reaction force as prior knowledge, and to expand the preview control to handle the predifined force. We also propose to accelerate calculation of the Resolved Momentum control used for controlling the center of mass obtained by the preview control. We experimentally verified applicability of the proposed method using the humanoid robot HRP-4.