Robots execute a wide array of rhythmic behaviors like walking, running, dribbling, etc. Rhythmic movement primitives are parametric models that can be used to represent these behaviors. Previously, these models have been learned either by means of demonstrations or by means of reward signals. While executing a rhythmic behavior, a stabilizing controller is needed in most robots to prevent fail...

Background. Designing highly mobile biologically inspired legged, winged, and limbless robots has advanced considerably in the past decade. Developing motion control algorithms for these robotic systems, however, is mainly carried out using ad-hoc techniques resulting in motions that are far less agile and efficient than the biological species that have inspired the robot morphology. A recent d...

Wheel-based locomotion is the most commonly used by mobile robots, due to its simplicity and robustness. However, when facing uneven terrain, such as steps or rocky terrain, its mobility is greatly reduced. Biped robots, in contrast, have a greater adaptation potential to these challenges due to the suitability of its structure. In spite of this, the traditional biped locomotion methods used by...

In nature, humans can always find a way to maintain the balance when there is an external push in a large magnitude. Most of present bipedal robots walk properly on the even terrain without any external disturbances. However, they cannot deal with the unexpected disturbance very well, such as, uneven terrain or abrupt strong push. The Capture Point1,2 has been presented to compute the region on...

We consider a two-link biped, a three-link biped, and a five-link planar biped without feet (with “point feet”). Their ankles are not actuated. The control torques are applied to the bipeds in the inter-link joints only. Then this family of bipeds is under actuated when only one leg tip touches the ground. It is difficult to control the walking of this kind of bipeds because they are statically...

This study focuses on the passive dynamic walking to enable a biped robot on level ground to walk efficiently with simple mechanisms. To build an efficient bipedal robot, utilizing the dynamical property of the robot system is a useful approach. McGeer studied passivedynamic walking, and showed a biped robot without actuators and controllers can walk stably down a shallow slope in simulations a...

Building trajectories for biped robot walking is a complex task considering all degrees of freedom (DOFs) commonly bound within the mechanical structure. A typical problem for such robots is the instability produced by violent transitions between walking phases in particular when a swinging leg impacts the surface. Although extensive research on novel efficient walking algorithms has been condu...

In the age of an aging society, the prospective role of robots is turning gradually from just working machines to do monotonous work in a factories to partners who support human life. In recent years, a lot of autonomous humanoid robots have been actually realized (Hirai et al. (1998); Kaneko et al. (2008)). These robots can walk on two legs stably by means of the control based on ZMP (Zero Mom...

It has been established that a suitably designed unpowered mechanical biped may \walk" down an inclined plane all by itself and eventually acquire a stable periodic gait. The characteristics of this periodic gait (e.g., velocity, time period) depend on the geometry of the biped and the slope of the plane. The energy to maintain the periodic motion comes from the conversion of the biped's gravit...

This paper deals with the control of walking biped robots. An on line optimal control approach based on moving horizon strategy is developed. The problem is stated as an optimization one subject to physical coherent constraints issued from human behavior observation. The strategy is tested with a model of the BIP robot designed by INRIA.