• 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.

• Proceedings of the Korean Society of Precision Engineering Conference
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• 2008.11a
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• pp.159-160
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• 2008

• Proceedings of the KSME Conference
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• 2005.11a
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• pp.203.2-203.2
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• 2005

• Journal of the Ergonomics Society of Korea
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• v.25 no.4
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• pp.115-119
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• 2006

To investigate the effects of independent suspension technology(IST) of hiking boot on the stability and load of foot, eight participants performed medial and lateral drop landing from 33.4cm height and 85cm distance to uneven surface while wearing normal & IST hiking boots. For the stability of foot during the drop landing, the balance angle & suspension angle and rearfoot angle was analyzed using high-speed video analysis. Also kinetic analysis using the force plate and insole pressure measurement was conducted to analyze vertical & breaking ground reaction force and pressure distribution. Not only the balance angle & suspension angle but also rearfoot angle was improved with IST boots for lateral drop landing. These results indicate the IST boots may have the suspension function which keeps the foot to be stable during landing. However the IST boots did not show any effect for medial landing. This might be related to the hardness of medial part of outsole. Therefore the softer outsole of medial part could be recommended. Furthermore the impact force & breaking force and insole pressure were reduced with IST boot. These results means that IST boot has not only cushioning effect but also good grip effect. Therefore the hiking boots applied the independent suspension function may help to reduce fatigue and prevent injury such as ankle sprain in hiking on uneven surface.

• Transactions of the Korean Society of Mechanical Engineers A
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• v.34 no.6
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• pp.667-673
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• 2010

This paper proposes a control method based on a pseudo-impedance model to control the motion of biped robots walking on an uneven surface. The pseudo-impedance model simulates the action of the ankle of a foot landing on the ground when a human walks. When the foot is in contact with the ground, the human ankle goes through two different phases. In the first phase, the human exerts little or no effort and applies no torque on the ankle so that the orientation of the foot is effortlessly and passively adjusted with respect to the ground. In the second phase of landing, the ankle generates a significant amount of torque in order to rotate and move the main part of the human body forward and to support the weight of the human; this phase is called the weight acceptance phase. Computer simulations of a 12-DOF biped robot with a 6-DOF environment model were performed to determine the effectiveness of the proposed pseudo-impedance control. The simulation results show that stable locomotion can be achieved on an irregular surface by using the proposed model.

• Transactions of the Korean Society of Mechanical Engineers A
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• v.21 no.8
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• pp.1250-1258
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• 1997

This paper reports on the development of a new foot for a quadrupedal jointed-leg type walking robot. The foot has 2 toes, one at the front and the other at the rear side, for stable landing on uneven ground by point contact. The toes can move up and down independantly, guided by double-wishbone shaped parallel links which enable the lower leg to rotate with respect to a remote center on the ground surface. The motion of each toe is damped by a hydropneumatic shock absorber integrated in the foot in order to absorb the dynamic landing shock. Furthermore, the new foot can reduce the maximum hip joint drive torque by shortening the moment arm length between the hip joint and the landing force vector on the ground. Intensive experiments were carried out in this study by using a one-leg walking model to investigate the soft landing performance of the foot which could be hardly offered by conventional robot feet such as a flat plate with a gimbal type ankle joint. And it was confirmed that the hip joint torque of the leg walking on the flat surface could be reduced remarkably by using the new foot.