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Receding horizon viability radius for stability of humanoid robot under external perturbation

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Abstract

In this paper, a new approach that uses the rate of change of the angular momentum about the center of mass (COM) to improve the balance of a humanoid robot is proposed. This approach is motivated by how humans balance themselves when standing, walking, and running by making use of their upper body and swinging legs. Human movements such as lunging forward or backward and rotating arms make use of angular momentum to maintain balance. As the external perturbation increases, a human instinctively decides when and where to take a step to avoid a fall. In the same manner, a humanoid robot subjected to an external perturbation can determine whether to remain standing or to take a step with a swinging leg to maintain balance using RHVR conditions obtained from the proposed linear inverted dumbbell model. The rotation of a dumbbell model with mass inertia is an easy expression of the angular momentum of an upper body, arms, and legs. A zero-moment point (ZMP) outside the support polygon indicates an unbalanced gait and cannot represent a physical point related to the sole of the robot foot, which is defined as pseudo-ZMP (PZMP) in this paper. PZMP located outside the support area provides useful information for balancing the gait. PZMP from the foot edge provides a measure of the unbalanced moment that tends to rotate the humanoid robot around the supporting foot and causes it to fall. It is shown that PZMP is determined by the Gauss’s principle within mechanical constraints of the rate of change of angular momentum about COM. In fact, the actual angular acceleration about COM is determined by the Gauss’s principle. Additionally, RHVRs is defined, that is, viability regions to keep the balance that indicate the essential range of stability implemented to a real system. RHVRs are divided into the real ZMP (RZMP), PZMP and stepping PZMP (SPZMP). Hence, the regions of RHVR and the actual angular acceleration about COM determine which of the three control strategies is used.

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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. School of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering, Seoul National University, Seoul, 151-742, Korea

    Sangyong Lee

  2. Center for Intelligent Robotics, Korea Institute of Science and Technology, 39-1 Hawolgok-dong, Sungbuk-gu, Seoul, 136-791, Korea

    Munsang Kim

  3. Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering, Seoul National University, Seoul, 151-742, Korea

    Jongwon Kim

  4. Center for Intelligent Robotics, Korea Institute of Science and Technology, 39-1 Hawolgok-dong, Sungbuk-gu, Seoul, 136-791, Korea

    Mun-Taek Choi

Authors
  1. Sangyong Lee
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  2. Munsang Kim
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  4. Mun-Taek Choi
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Munsang Kim.

Additional information

This paper was recommended for publication in revised form by Associate Editor Jong Hyeon Park

Sangyong Lee received the B.S. degree in mechanical engineering from Chonbuk National University, JeonJu, Chonbuk, Korea, in 2000, the M.S. degree from University of Southern California, Los Angeles, USA, in 2002. He is currently a Ph.D. student in the School of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering at Seoul National University, Seoul, Korea. His current research interests are related to humanoid robots, dynamics & control.

Munsang Kim received the B.S. and M.S. degrees in mechanical engineering from Seoul National University, Seoul, Korea, in 1980 and 1982, respectively, and the Dr.-Ing. degree in robotics from the Technical University of Berlin, Berlin, Germany, in 1987. Since 1987, he has been a Research Scientist with the Korea Institute of Science and Technology, Seoul, where he has led the Advanced Robotics Research Center since 2000, and became the Director of the “Intelligent Robot-The Frontier 21 Program” in October 2003. His current research interests are design and control of novel mobile manipulation systems, haptic device design and control, and sensor application to intelligent robots.

Jongwon Kim received the B.S. degree in mechanical engineering from Seoul National University, Seoul, Korea, in 1978, the M.S. degree from KAIST, Korea, in 1980, and the Ph.D. degree from the University of Wisconsin—Madison in 1987. He is currently an Associate Professor in the School of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering at Seoul National University in Korea. He worked as a Senior Manager at Daewoo Heavy Industries, Ltd. His research interests are in intelligent manufacturing systems and parallel kinematic machines. Dr. Kim received the Best Paper Award from ASME Manufacturing Engineering Division in 1997 and SME University LEAD Award in 1996.

Mun-Taek Choi received his B.S., M.S. and Ph.D. degree in Aerospace and Mechanical Engineering from University of Southern California in 1994, 1997 and 2000, respectively. He is currently a Senior Research Engineer at the Center for Intelligent Robotics (Frontier 21 Program) in the Korea Institute of Science and Technology. His research interests include software architecture for intelligent robots and dynamics & control of mechanical systems.

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Lee, S., Kim, M., Kim, J. et al. Receding horizon viability radius for stability of humanoid robot under external perturbation. J Mech Sci Technol 24, 1127–1139 (2010). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12206-010-0326-3

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s12206-010-0326-3

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