Analysis for Realisation of Humanoid Motion on Complex Topologies

Humanoids require interaction with their environment through careful placement and utilisation of its contacts to realise a desired motion. In most cases however, contact placement is constrained and there subsequently exists many motions which are not realisable. When contacts are restricted to a horizontal ground plane, a Zero Moment Point (ZMP) analysis is sufficient for determining the realisability of a specified motion. In this paper we briefly review the fundamentals of a ZMP analysis and then extend these principles so that a rigourous analysis concerning the realisability of humanoid motion on a complex topology (uneven surface) can be explored.