• 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.

• The Transactions of the Korean Institute of Electrical Engineers D
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• v.49 no.5
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• pp.257-263
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• 2000

One of the basic assumptions in the static gait design for a walking robot is that the weight of leg should be negligible compared to that of body, so that the total gravity center is not affected by swing of a leg. Based on the ideal assumption of zero leg-weight, conventional static gait has been simply designed for the gravity center of body to be inside the support polygon, consisting of each support leg's tip position. In case that the weight of leg is relatively heavy, however, while the gravity center of body is kept inside the support polygon, the total gravity center of walking robot can be out of the polygon due to weight of a swinging leg, which causes instability in walking. Thus, it is necessary in the static gait design of a real robot a compensation scheme for the fluctuation in the gravity center. In this paper, a body impedance control is proposed to obtain the total gravity center based on foot forces measured from load cells of a real walking robot and to adjust its position to track the pre-designed trajectory of the corresponding ideal robot's body center. Therefore, the walking stability is secured even in case that the weight of leg has serious influence on the total gravity center of robot.

• 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.

• The Journal of Korea Robotics Society
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• v.6 no.4
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• pp.301-307
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• 2011

Based on the stability criteria of ZMP (Zero Moment Point), this paper proposes an adjusting algorithm that modifies walking trajectory of a bipedal robot for stable walking by analyzing ZMP trajectory of it. In order to maintain walking balance of the bipedal robot, ZMP should be located within a supporting polygon that is determined by the foot supporting area with stability margin. Initially tilting imposed to the trajectory of the upper body is proposed to transfer ZMP of the given walking trajectory into the stable region for the minimum stability. A neural network method is also proposed for the stable walking trajectory of the biped robot. It uses backpropagation learning with angles and angular velocities of all joints with tilting to get the improved walking trajectory. By applying the optimized walking trajectory that is obtained with the neural network model, the ZMP trajectory of the bipedal robot is certainly located within a stable area of the supporting polygon. Experimental results show that the optimally learned trajectory with neural network gives more stability even though the tilting of the pelvic joint has a great role for walking stability.

• Journal of the Korean Institute of Intelligent Systems
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• v.14 no.4
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• pp.481-486
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• 2004

The biped robot has the better mobility than the conventional wheeled robot. Since a biped robot tends to tip over easily, it is necessary to take stability into account when determining a walking pattern. To ensure the dynamic stability of the biped robot, we have to adapt the ground conditions with a foot motion and maintain motion, and ensure its stability through the kinematics and dynamics analysis. But its mathematic model is not too easy. In this paper, in order to ensure the dynamic stability of a biped robot, we design the fuzzy model and confirm the realization possibility of the proposed method through some simulations.

• The Journal of the Korea institute of electronic communication sciences
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• v.8 no.11
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• pp.1665-1674
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• 2013

In this paper, we propose a genetic algorithm(GA) based locomotion method of a quadruped robot with waist joint, which makes a quadruped robot walk on the slop efficiently. In the proposed method, we first derive the kinematic model of a quadruped robot with waist joint and then set the gene and the fitness function for GA. In addition, we determine the best attitude for a quadruped robot and the landing point of a foot in the walk space, which has the optimal energy stability margin(ESM). Finally, we verify the effectiveness of the proposed method by comparing with the performance of the previous method through the computer simulations.

• Science of Emotion and Sensibility
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• v.13 no.3
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• pp.441-448
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• 2010

In the aging society, the walking assist robot is a necessary device for being able to help the older and the lower limb disabled people to walk. In order to produce a convenient robot for the older and the lower limb disabled, it is needed for the research to detect the implicit walking intention and to control robot by a user's intention. This study is a previous study to develop the detection model of the walking intention and analyze the user's walking intention while a person is walking with Lofstrand crutches, by the combination of FSR and tilt signals. The FSR sensors attached user's the palm and the soles of foot are sensing force/pressure signals from these areas and are used for detecting the walking intention and states. The tilt sensor acquires roll and pitch signal from area of vertebrae lumbales and reflects the pose of the upper limb. We can recognize the user's walking intention such as 'start walking', 'start of right or left foot forward', and 'stop walking' by the combination of FSR and tilt signals can recognize.

• Transactions of the Korean Society of Mechanical Engineers A
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• v.22 no.4
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• pp.768-778
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• 1998

Human beings usually absorb a shock from terrain during walking through the damping effects of joints, muscles and skin. With this analogy, a robot-leg with a shock absorber is built to absorb the impact forces at its foot during high-speed walking on irregular terrain. To control the hip position while walking, the dynamic controller suitable for high speed walking is designed and implemented based on a dynamic model by Kane's equation. The hip position tracking performances of various controllers (PID controller, computed torque controller and feedforward torque controller) are compared through the experiments of the real robot-leg.

• The Transactions of the Korean Institute of Electrical Engineers D
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• v.55 no.7
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• pp.319-326
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• 2006

This paper proposes a novel fault-tolerant gait for Quadruped robots using energy stability margins. The previously developed fault-tolerant gaits for quadruped robots have a drawback of having marginal stability margin, which may lead to tumbling. In the process of tumbling, the potential energy of the center of gravity goes through a maximum. The larger the difference between the potential energy of the center of gravity of the initial position and that of this maximum, the less the robot tumbles. Hence this difference of potential energy, dubbed as Energy Stability Margin (ESM), can be regarded as the stability margin. In this paper, a novel fault-tolerant gait is presented which gives positive ESM to a quadruped robot suffering from a locked joint failure. Positive ESM is obtained by adjusting foot positions between leg swing sequences. The advantage of the proposed fault-tolerant gait is demonstrated in a case study where a quadruped robot with a failed leg walks on a even slope.

• Journal of Mechanical Science and Technology
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• v.14 no.2
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• pp.131-140
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• 2000

For a walking robot with high constant body speed, the dynamic effects of the legs on the transfer phase are dominant compared with other factors. This paper presents a new force distribution algorithm to maximize walkable terrain without slipping considering the dynamic effects of the legs on the transfer phase. Maximizing the walkable terrain means having the capability of walking on more slippery ground under the same constraint, namely constant body speed. A simple force distribution algorithm applied to the proposed walking model with a pantograph leg shows an improvement in the capability of preventing foot-slippage compared with one using a pseudo-inverse method.