Designer - Robotics & Mechanisms Laboratory (RoMeLa)
Designer - Robotics & Mechanisms Laboratory (RoMeLa)
https://youtu.be/Y5UoQsHJskw
Published on Nov 14, 2016
Quote:
Traditional humanoid robots are complex machines whose practical uses are yet limited due to their prohibitive complexity, cost, slow speed, and lack of stability. This video presents an experimental feasibility study on a novel bipedal robot concept and prototype that takes inspiration from humanoids but features fundamental differences that drastically improve its agility and stability while reducing its complexity and cost. This Non-Anthropomorphic Bipedal Robotic System (NABiRoS) modifies the traditional bipedal form by aligning the legs in the sagittal plane and adding compliance to the feet, reducing the total number of actuated degrees of freedom to four. The platform is comparable in height to a human, but weighs much less because of its lightweight architecture and novel leg configuration. The inclusion of the compliant element showed immense improvements in the stability and robustness of walking gaits on the prototype, allowing the robot to remain stable during locomotion without any inertial feedback control. The platform was also able to traverse shallow ramps and steps and portray a certain level of emotion through the dynamic motions it performs. NABiRoS was able to achieve walking speeds of up to 0.75km/h (0.21m/s) using a simple pre-processed ZMP based gait and a positioning accuracy of +/- 0.04m with a preprocessed quasi-static algorithm. Strategies for changing the walking direction and traversing uneven terrain are currently being investigated.