TY - GEN
T1 - Crawling gait generation method for four-limbed robot based on normalized energy stability margin
AU - Matsuzawa, T.
AU - Hashimoto, K.
AU - Sun, X.
AU - Teramachi, T.
AU - Kimura, S.
AU - Sakai, N.
AU - Yoshida, Y.
AU - Imai, A.
AU - Kumagai, K.
AU - Matsubara, T.
AU - Yamaguchi, K.
AU - Tan, W. X.
AU - Takanishi, A.
N1 - Funding Information:
ACKNOWLEDGMENT This study was conducted with the support of Research Institute for Science and Engineering, Waseda University; Future Robotics Organization, Waseda University, and as a part of the humanoid project at the Humanoid Robotics Institute, Waseda University. This research was funded by ImPACT TRC Program of Council for Science, Technology and Innovation (Cabinet Office, Government of Japan). It was also partially supported by SolidWorks Japan K. K; DYDEN Corporation; and KITO Corporation whom we thank for their financial and technical support.
Funding Information:
I. INTRODUCTION Many disasters, both natural and man-made, have occurred in recent years. Hence, there is an urgent need to develop disaster response robots that can take the place of human as first responders. As part of the effort to promote the development of disaster response robots, the "DARPA Robotics Challenge" competition, sponsored by the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency, was held in 2015 [1]. In response to that, there have been many enthusiastic efforts around the world to develop robots. The authors of this paper are developing a human-sized four-limbed robot that can move and work in disaster areas [2]. So far, the robot has managed to achieve the climbing of vertical ladders that are often seen as a part of scaffolds in power plants [3].
Publisher Copyright:
© 2017 IEEE.
PY - 2017/10/26
Y1 - 2017/10/26
N2 - In this paper, we describe a gait generation method for the crawling motion of a legged robot using Normalized Energy Stability Margin (NESM). The crawling motion is a method of locomotion that, since the robot is very close to a state of falling, its leg and torso are grounded alternately in order to enable the robot to move with a low center of gravity. It has the benefit of decreasing the impact experienced by the robot and reduces the risk of becoming damaged if it falls over. However, during the phase where only the robot's torso is in contact with the ground, the size of robot's support area is smaller than the case when its legs are in contact with the ground. This decrease in support area may cause the robot to fall or tip over sideways in the direction where the edge of robot's cuboid torso is providing the most support on an inclined surface. As a result, the robot's feet may collide with the road's surface when its legs are moving forward and prevent the robot from performing its crawling motion. To deal with this problem, we propose a method of gait generation for the crawling motion based on a stability criteria. Depending on the stability criteria, this method involves the selection of a stance, with which it lifts its torso and a way of controlling the landing height of the robot's feet depending on the unevenness of the surface of the road. In experiments, it has been confirmed that stability was improved when the four-limbed robot performed the crawling motion using the proposed method on an inclined road surface.
AB - In this paper, we describe a gait generation method for the crawling motion of a legged robot using Normalized Energy Stability Margin (NESM). The crawling motion is a method of locomotion that, since the robot is very close to a state of falling, its leg and torso are grounded alternately in order to enable the robot to move with a low center of gravity. It has the benefit of decreasing the impact experienced by the robot and reduces the risk of becoming damaged if it falls over. However, during the phase where only the robot's torso is in contact with the ground, the size of robot's support area is smaller than the case when its legs are in contact with the ground. This decrease in support area may cause the robot to fall or tip over sideways in the direction where the edge of robot's cuboid torso is providing the most support on an inclined surface. As a result, the robot's feet may collide with the road's surface when its legs are moving forward and prevent the robot from performing its crawling motion. To deal with this problem, we propose a method of gait generation for the crawling motion based on a stability criteria. Depending on the stability criteria, this method involves the selection of a stance, with which it lifts its torso and a way of controlling the landing height of the robot's feet depending on the unevenness of the surface of the road. In experiments, it has been confirmed that stability was improved when the four-limbed robot performed the crawling motion using the proposed method on an inclined road surface.
KW - Crawling
KW - Legged robot
KW - Rescue robot
KW - Rough terrain
KW - Stability index
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U2 - 10.1109/SSRR.2017.8088167
DO - 10.1109/SSRR.2017.8088167
M3 - Conference contribution
AN - SCOPUS:85040244823
T3 - SSRR 2017 - 15th IEEE International Symposium on Safety, Security and Rescue Robotics, Conference
SP - 223
EP - 229
BT - SSRR 2017 - 15th IEEE International Symposium on Safety, Security and Rescue Robotics, Conference
PB - Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers Inc.
T2 - 15th IEEE International Symposium on Safety, Security and Rescue Robotics, SSRR 2017
Y2 - 11 October 2017 through 13 October 2017
ER -