Bipedal Dynamic Walking in Robotics

It is easier for bipedal robots to exist in a human oriented environment than for other types of robots. Furthermore, dynamic walking is more efficient than static walking. For a biped robot achieve dynamic balance while walking, a dynamic gait must be developed. Two different approaches to gait generation are presented—an intuitive approach using software for gait animation, and a periodic approach that provides a scalable gait with parameters for controlling step length, step height and step period. A biped robot also requires a control system to ensure the stability of the robot while walking. Various simple control techniques were tried—proportional control and proportional integral control systems were implemented to modify trunk motion in order to compensate for lower limb movement. A seven link biped robot with human proportions was designed and constructed, to apply the developed gaits and control systems. Several experiments were conducted to examine the stability of the developed gaits. The ability of the control systems to stabilise and balance the robot while stationary and in motion was trialled. It was found that control using the intuitive approach to gait generation is problematic, due to difficulty scaling the gait. With this gait the robot successfully took three steps. The periodic function approach to gait generation is scalable, but slow to implement directly. Simple control systems allowed the robot to balance sufficiently while standing in an upright stationary position. However, these control systems were insufficient to stabilise the robot while walking. Reasons for success or failure of the gait generation methods and control systems are discussed and analysed. Future research methods are proposed to improve upon the theories developed in this dissertation.