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Energy efficient walking: combining height variation of the center of mass and curved feet

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Abstract

We use characteristics inspired by the human gait to reduce the energy expenditure of walking in low-cost humanoid robots. Our contribution is to implement the height variation of the center of mass during gait with foot motion around the ankle during gait phase changes. The robot’s foot is curved with a geometric shape that favors rolling motion on the ground. For the control, we extend the Preview Control of Zero-Moment Point technique for the planning of the center of mass, and we will adapt the 3D Linear Inverted Pendulum Model (3D-LIPM) so that our system is linear time-varying. Finally, the inverse kinematics gives us the position of the joints. To measure the energy, we will use a realistic simulator. In the simulator, the fully actuated robot stays in balance in a three-dimensional environment with gravity while walking. The results proved satisfactory, reducing energy expenditure by almost 25% when we combine height-varying and curved feet.

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Notes

  1. https://gitlab.com/itandroids/open-projects/urdf-for-chape-with-curved-feet/-/blob/urdf/darwin.urdf?ref_type=heads.

  2. https://youtu.be/mwzfdQVjDbc.

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Acknowledgements

Caroline Silva acknowledges CAPES-Proex (number 88887.288287-2018-00) for financial support. Moreover, the team ITAndroids would like to thank its sponsors: Altium, Intel, ITAEx, Mathworks, Metinjo, Micropress, Polimold, Rapid, SolidWorks, SIATT, ST Microelectronics, WildLife, and Virtual Pyxis. Finally, the authors thank the support of the São Paulo Research Foundation - FAPESP (Grant 2016/03647-3). Marcos Maximo is partially funded by CNPq – National Research Council of Brazil through the grant 307525/2022-8.

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Author notes

  1. Marco R. O. A. Maximo and Luiz C. S. Góes contributed equally to this work.

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Autonomous Computational Systems Lab (LAB-SCA), Computer Science Division, Aeronautics Institute of Technology, Praça Marechal Eduardo Gomes, 50, Vila das Acácias, 12228-900, São José dos Campos, SP, Brazil

    Caroline C. D. Silva & Marco R. O. A. Maximo

  2. Mechanical Engineering Division, Aeronautics Institute of Technology, Praça Marechal Eduardo Gomes, 50, Vila das Acácias, 12228-900, São José dos Campos, SP, Brazil

    Luiz C. S. Góes

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  1. Caroline C. D. Silva
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  2. Marco R. O. A. Maximo
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  3. Luiz C. S. Góes
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Correspondence to Caroline C. D. Silva.

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Silva, C.C.D., Maximo, M.R.O.A. & Góes, L.C.S. Energy efficient walking: combining height variation of the center of mass and curved feet. J Braz. Soc. Mech. Sci. Eng. 46, 358 (2024). https://doi.org/10.1007/s40430-024-04845-7

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