• Journal of the Korean Society for Precision Engineering
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• v.26 no.10
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• pp.47-55
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• 2009

In this study, a robot foot having toes for firm stepping on uneven surface is proposed. The toes are connected to the lower leg by parallel links so that the lower leg can rotate in the rolling and pitching directions during stance phase without ankle joint. The landing performance of the foot on uneven surface was evaluated by relative comparison with that of the most common foot making point contact with the walking surface, since the test conditions considering real uneven surface could be hardly defined for its objective evaluation. Anti-slip margin(ASM) was defined in this study to express the slip resistance of a robot foot when it lands on a projection with half circular-, triangular- or rectangular cross section, assuming that uneven surface consists of projections having these kind of cross sections in different sizes. Based on the ASM analysis, the slip conditions for the two feet were experimentally confirmed. The results showed that the slip resistance of the new foot is not only higher than that of the conventional point contact type foot but also less sensitive to the surface friction coefficient.