Locomotion of a biped robot with compliant ankle joints

Control of a biped robot which has compliant ankle joints is dealt in this paper. Simulated version of a human ankle joint is built using springs and mechanical constraints, which gives a flexibility of joint and compliance against the touching ground. The biped robot with compliant ankle joints proposed here gives a good contact between its sole and the ground and makes foot landing soft. As a result, installing force sensors for measuring the center of gravity of the biped becomes easier. A motor to drive an ankle joint is not needed which makes legs light. However, the control problem becomes more difficult because the torque of the ankle joint to put the biped in a desired walking gait cannot be provided from the compliant ankle joint. To solve this problem, we proposed a dynamic gait modification method by adjusting the position of a hip joint. Simulation results for the mathematical model of the SD-2 biped in the Ohio State University are given to show the validity of the proposed controller.