2023/07/22 by Robert J. Griffin, James Foster, Griffin, Robert +7 · 1 citation
Biochemistry, Genetics and Molecular Biology · Computer Science · Engineering · #FOS: Computer and information sciences #Genetics and Physical Performance #Human Pose and Action Recognition #Robotic Locomotion and Control #Robotics (cs.RO)
paper · pdf · doi:10.48550/arxiv.2307.11968
openalex publication_date 2023/07/22 · openalex created_date 2023/07/26 · openalex updated_date 2026/08/01
For humanoid robots to live up to their potential utility, they must be able to robustly recover from instabilities. In this work, we propose a number of balance enhancements to enable the robot to both achieve specific, desired footholds in the world and adjusting the step positions and times as necessary while leveraging ankle and hip. This includes improving the calculation of capture regions for bipedal locomotion to better consider how step constraints affect the ability to recover. We then explore a new strategy for performing cross-over steps to maintain stability, which greatly enhances the variety of tracking error from which the robot may recover. Our last contribution is a strategy for time adaptation during the transfer phase for recovery. We then present these results on our humanoid robot, Nadia, in both simulation and hardware, showing the robot walking over rough terrain, recovering from external disturbances, and taking cross-over steps to maintain balance.