• Journal of Institute of Control, Robotics and Systems
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• v.10 no.9
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• pp.833-839
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• 2004

This paper proposes a method that minimizes the consumed energy by searching the optimal locations of the mass centers of links composing of a biped robot using Real-Coded Genetic Algorithm. Generally, in order to utilize optimization algorithms, the system model and design variables must be defined. Firstly, the proposed model is a 6-DOF biped robot composed of seven links, since many of the essential characteristics of the human walking motion can be captured with a seven-link planar biped walking in the saggital plane. Next, Fourth order polynomials are used for basis functions to approximate the walking gait. The coefficients of the fourth order polynomials are defined as design variables. In order to use the method generating the optimal gait trajectory by searching the locations of mass centers of links, three variables are added to the total number of design variables. Real-Coded GA is used for optimization algorithm by reason of many advantages. Simulations and the comparison of three methods to generate gait trajectories including the GCIPM were performed. They show that the proposed method can decrease the consumed energy remarkably and be applied during the design phase of a robot actually.

• Journal of Institute of Control, Robotics and Systems
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• v.15 no.10
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• pp.1029-1038
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• 2009

This paper proposes a gain switching algorithm for joint position control of a hydraulic humanoid robot. Accurate position control of the lower body is one of the basic requirements for robust balance and walking control. Joint position control is more difficult for hydraulic robots than it is for electric robots because of an absence of reduction gear and better back-drivability of hydraulic joints. Backdrivability causes external forces and torques to have a large effect on the position of the joints. External ground reaction forces therefore prevent a simple proportional-derivative (PD) controller from realizing accurate and fast joint position control. We propose a state feedback controller for joint position control of the lower body, define three modes of state feedback gains, and switch the gains according to the Zero Moment Point (ZMP) and linear interpolation. Dynamic equations of hydraulic actuators were experimentally derived and applied to a robot simulator. Finally, the performance of the algorithm is evaluated with dynamic simulations.

• Journal of Institute of Control, Robotics and Systems
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• v.21 no.9
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• pp.849-857
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• 2015

Although human-sized bipedal humanoid robots have been developed as the ideal form of human-friendly robots, studies of humanoid robots from the user perspective and of actual interaction between humanoid robots and the public in daily environments are few. This paper presents a long-term public demonstration that encouraged interaction between a humanoid robot and unspecified individuals. We have collected a significant amount of subjective evaluation data from the public by performing a storytelling demonstration that enhanced people's empathy towards the robot. The evaluation model consists of the robot's human friendliness, which involves its impression on humans, interaction with humans, and imitation of human motions and the robot's human appearance which involves gender, age, height, and body type. This study shows that there is no significant difference in human-friendliness between gender groups (male and female), while there is a significant difference between age groups (children and adults). In human appearance, it appears that there is no significant difference between either gender groups or age groups, except for the case of the robot's height.

• The Journal of Korea Robotics Society
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• v.11 no.3
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• pp.183-192
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• 2016

Generating motion of center of mass for biped robots is a challenging issue since biped robots can easily lose balance due to limited contact area between foot and ground. In this paper, we propose force control method to generate high-speed motion of the center of mass for horizontal direction without losing balancing condition. Contact consistent multi-body dynamics of the robot is used to calculate force for horizontal direction of the center of mass considering balance. The calculated force is applied for acceleration or deceleration of the center of mass to generate high speed motion. The linear inverted pendulum model is used to estimate motion of the center of mass and the estimated motion is used to select either maximum or minimum force to stop at goal position. The proposed method is verified by experiments using 12-DOF torque controlled human sized legged robot.

• The Journal of Korea Robotics Society
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• v.8 no.2
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• pp.92-103
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• 2013

Humanoid robot is the most intimate robot platform suitable for human interaction and services. Biped walking is its basic locomotion method, which is performed with combination of joint actuator's rotations in the lower extremity. The present work employs humanoid robot simulator and numerical optimization method to generate optimal joint trajectories for biped walking. The simulator is developed with Matlab based on the robot structure constructed with the Denavit-Hartenberg (DH) convention. Particle swarm optimization method minimizes the cost function for biped walking associated with performance index such as altitude trajectory of clearance foot and stability index concerning zero moment point (ZMP) trajectory. In this paper, instead of checking whether ZMP's position is inside the stable region or not, reference ZMP trajectory is approximately configured with feature points by which piece-wise linear trajectory can be drawn, and difference of reference ZMP and actual one at each sampling time is added to the cost function. The optimized joint trajectories realize three phases of stable gait including initial, periodic, and final steps. For validation of the proposed approach, a small-sized humanoid robot named DARwIn-OP is commanded to walk with the optimized joint trajectories, and the walking result is successful.

• Journal of Institute of Control, Robotics and Systems
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• v.17 no.3
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• pp.269-276
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• 2011

This paper proposes a novel control method using phase plane for a hydraulic biped humanoid robot. In biped walking control, it is much more difficult to control the posture of a biped robot in the coronal plane because the supporting area formed by the both feet in the coronal plane is much narrower than that of the sagittal plane. When the biped robot walks stably, the phase portrait of the pelvis in the coronal plane makes an elliptical shape. From this point of view, we develop an ankle torque controller and a foot placement controller for tracking the desired phase portrait during walking. We design these controllers by using simulations of a simplified compass gait biped model to regulate the desired phase portrait of pelvis. The effectiveness of the proposed control method is proved through full-body dynamic walking simulations and real experiments of the SARCOS hydraulic biped humanoid.

• The Journal of Korea Robotics Society
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• v.16 no.2
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• pp.86-93
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• 2021

This paper proposes a controller to regulate the supply pressure of the hydraulic power unit (HPU) for driving a bipedal robot. We establish flow rate models for charging accumulator, actuating joints and leaking from actuators and spool valves. This determines the pump driving motor speed to satisfy the demanded flow rate for operating the bipedal robot without the energy loss caused by the bypass through a pressure regulating valve. We apply proposed controller to an onboard HPU mounted on top of bipedal robot platform with twelve degrees of freedom. We implement air-walking motion and squat motion which require variable flow rate to the bipedal robot. Through this experiment, the energy efficiency of proposed controller was verified by comparing the electric energy consumed when the controller was applied and when the pump operated at constant speed. We also shows the capability of the HPU's control performance to regulate supply pressure.

• The Journal of Korea Robotics Society
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• v.16 no.2
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• pp.147-154
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• 2021

One of the most challenging issues when robots interact with the environment is to establish contact quickly and avoid high impact force at the same time. The proposed method implements the passive suspension system using the redundancy of the torque-controlled robot. Instead of utilizing the actual mechanical compliance, the distal joints near the end-effector are controlled to act as a virtual spring-damper system with low feedback gains. The proximal joints are precisely controlled to push the mid-link, which is defined as the boundary link between the proximal and distal joints, towards the environment with high feedback gains. Compared to the active compliance methods, the contact force measurements or estimates are not required for contact establishment and the control time delay problems do not occur correspondingly. The proposed method was applied to the landing foot control of the 12-DoF biped robot DYROS-RED in the simulations. In the results, the impact force during landing was significantly reduced at the same collision speed.

• The Journal of Korea Robotics Society
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• v.18 no.3
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• pp.241-250
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• 2023

This paper describes the posture stabilization control of a bipedal transformer robot being developed for military use. An inverted pendulum model with a rectangular that considers the robot's inertia is proposed, and a posture stabilization moment that can maintain the body tilt angle is derived by applying disturbance observer and state feedback control. In addition, vertical force and posture stabilization moments that can maintain the body height and balance are derived through QP optimization to obtain the necessary torques and vertical force for each foot. The roll and pitch angles of the IMU sensor attached to the robot's feet are reflected in the ankle joint to enable flexible adaptation to changes in ground inclination. Finally, the effectiveness of the proposed algorithm in posture stabilization is verified by comparing and analyzing the difference in body tilt angle due to disturbances and ground inclination changes with and without algorithm application, using Gazebo dynamic simulation and a down-scale test platform.

• Journal of Advanced Marine Engineering and Technology
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• v.32 no.8
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• pp.1285-1295
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• 2008

A research on a simulator for a side walking path of a 16 degree-of-freedom (d.o.f) biped walking robot(BWR) which is composed of 4 d.o.f upper-part body and 12 d.o.f lower-part of the body is presented. For generation of stable side walking motion, the kinematics, dynamics and the zero moment of point(ZMP) of the BWR were analyzed analytically and included in the simulator. To operate the motion simulator for stable side walking of the BWR, a graphic user interface program was developed which needs inputs for the side distance between legs, base joint angle, walking type, and walking velocity. The simulator was developed to generate joint angle data of legs for side walking, and the data are transmitted to the BWR for stable side walking. In the simulator, a new path function for smooth walking motion was proposed and applied to the simulator and actual motion of a BWR. Also for actual side walking, an algorithm for estimating backlashes of the actuating joint motors was proposed and included in the simulator. To validate the performance of the proposed motion simulator, the simulator was operated and its side walking data of the simulator were generated for a period of side walking.