Walking control using the SC approach for humanoid robot

Abstract

Conventional humanoid robots cannot achieve human like walking patterns. The reason is that human walking patterns include singularity configurations, i.e. configurations with the extended knees. Such kinematic singularities cause spurious joint motions. In other words, a humanoid robot cannot handle the singularity problem. On the other hand, humans make use of singularity configurations, because at such configurations large forces in certain directions can be generated. Therefore, singularities play an important roll for creating efficient walking patterns. In our previous work, we proposed the Singularity Consistent (SC) Approach that can handle the singularity problem without instabilities [1] [2]. Until now, the approach has been applied to various manipulators. In this paper, we implement the SC approach into a walking pattern generator for a humanoid. Some issues and resolutions will be addressed. Experimental results show the effectiveness of our approach.

A Walking Pattern Generator around Singularity

“…However, if the robot enters completely into the singular position, it becomes uncontrollable since the determinant of the Jacobian is zero. In a previous work, that discusses static walking pattern generation, we have shown that this problem can be handled with the SC (Singularity Consistent) approach [10]. In this paper, however, we introduce a dynamic walking pattern generator that does not rely upon the SC approach.…”

“…The approach has already been applied to various manipulators, both non-redundant and redundant ones. In our previous work, we applied the SC approach to generate a static walking pattern for a humanoid [10].…”

Static Walk of a Humanoid Robot Based on the Singularity-Consistent Method

“…A possible approach, based on the Singularity-Consistent (SC) method, developed in our previous studies for manipulator control [9], has been introduced in [10], within a static walk framework. It must be noted that the SC method overcomes the singularity approach/depart problem by reducing the endeffector speed along the path.…”