11 accepted papers
This letter presents a simulation study of a planar monopod robot's motion search and control problems. The robot's passively spring-loaded prismatic joint in the lower body (between the foot and the shin) assists it in performing athletic motions. Systems of this kind can balance on a single point,
This letter presents a controller for robots that balance in a vertical plane on a rolling contact on a flat horizontal surface. It is an extension of Featherstone's balance controller to the case of robots that balance on rounded feet or wheels. Simulation results demonstrate the ability of the new
This paper demonstrates the practical performance of a new theory of balance control that has been shown in simulation to out-perform earlier balance control theories in the sense of allowing the robot to make larger and faster movements while still maintaining its balance. The case studied here is…
This paper presents a simulation study of the problem of balancing a planar double pendulum in which the lower body (the leg) has been modified to include a spring-loaded passive prismatic joint. Robots of this kind can travel by hopping, and can also stand and balance on a single point. The purpose…
The ability of legged systems to traverse highly- constrained environments depends by and large on the performance of their motion and balance controllers. This paper presents a controller that excels in a scenario that most state- of-the-art balance controllers have not yet addressed: line walking,…
This letter shows how the mass distribution in a robot's leg affects the propagation of mechanical shocks from the foot to the torso. An example is given of a leg design that propagates no shock at all; and a formula is given for the propagation of shock in a general robot leg, modelled as a chain o
Prior work has addressed control of continuous jumping using touchdown angle from flight, but greater precision can be obtained by directing individual leaps using liftoff angle from stance. We demonstrate targeted leaping as well as balanced landingon a narrow foot with a small, single leg hopping
This paper presents the first practical demonstration of a recently developed theory of balance control that aims to achieve high performance in the sense of allowing a robot to make large, fast movements while maintaining its balance on a narrow support. This theory includes a simple method of lean…
This paper first presents a formula to predict the largest balance disturbance from which a legged robot can recover without taking a step. It then presents an actuator design criterion derived from this formula that maximizes the robot's ability to recover. In this study, it is assumed that the rob…
We propose a reactive locomotion strategy, called height reflex, that is useful to address big elevation changes in the terrain (e.g. when a quadruped robot has to step down from a high platform). In these cases the swing leg can lose mobility creating issues in the subsequent steps. The height refl…
This paper shows how to define quantitative measures of a robot's ability to balance itself actively on a single point of support. These measures are expressed as ratios of velocities, and are called velocity gains. This paper builds on earlier work in this area by showing how these gains can be def…