Design of a Biped Robot

The design of a simple biped robot primarily involves the control of balance. Controlling the direction of balance for a two legged walking robot typically means mimicking the human form and its walking locomotion. Even though the human locomotion approach is taken as the ultimate reference, gaits can be developed using less sophisticated methods. The ultimate aim is to maintain an upright torso while advancing one leg in front of the other continuously. The mechanical structure then forces us to consider a combination of factors such as weight of each leg mechanism, and its appropriate dynamics such as velocity, acceleration, and degrees of freedom. Without developing other established principles, an adequate biped robot should have at least two degrees of freedom. Two degrees of freedom will allow the robot to swing or swivel one leg in front of the other for a step. With increasing degrees of freedom the robotic gait becomes smoother but extremely complex with respect to control. For a simple biped robot, the hardware needed is mechanical links, servos, servo controller, and a power source. The required components can be arranged in different configurations, but for the true autonomous biped robot a self contain package is ideal. This paper discusses basic considerations, develops the hardware, and a simple gait algorithm.