Load Gradient Model in Foot Soles for Non-Parallel Shuffling Humanoid Walk

Natural disaster prevention and reduction strategies are of national importance. In Japan, earthquakes occur frequently and are often of a significant magnitude. Such occurrences of natural disasters require adequate preparations, and robots are the preferred choice of personnel for disaster-related search and rescue tasks. Humanoid robots, in particular, can modify their behavior depending on the situations or conditions, and are expected to be used in disaster-affected areas for search and rescue activities. This study focuses on the humanoid robot shuffling walk, which is expected to be advantageous when moving around a narrow area with a constrained posture, as is often required for rescue operations in the devastated area. This report will propose a new load gradient model in foot soles for the synchronous, non-parallel shuffling walk of humanoid robots, for efficient movement.