Control of foot placement, forward velocity and body orientation of a one-legged hopping robot

This paper intends to contribute to the study of dynamically balanced legged robots. A real-time applicable control algorithm for a planar one-legged robot is developed, which allows for locomotion on an irregular terrain. The simulated model consists of an articulated leg and a body, vertically placed upon the leg. During the stance phase the leg is supported by a massless foot. The algorithm is based on the choice of a number of objective locomotion parameters which can be changed from one hop to another. From a chosen initial configuration the robot is able to transfer to a chosen end configuration, while simultaneously controlling its forward velocity, its step length and its stepping height. The foot is thus being placed exactly on a chosen foothold. To reach this goal, the actuators track polynomial functions. The calculation of these functions is based on the objective parameters, and takes into account the constraints acting on the robot. These constraints result from the fact that during flight the center of gravity of the robot tracks a parabolic trajectory, and that the angular momentum with respect to the center of gravity is conserved. Writing the angular momentum constraint in a Caplygin form is the key to the algorithm. Promising simulation results for the algorithm are shown for two different experiments.