Achieving Bipedal Running with RABBIT: Six Steps Toward Infinity

Ben Morris (1) , Eric Westervelt (2) , Christine Chevallereau (3) , Gabriel Buche (4) , Jessy Grizzle (1)

1 EECS - Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science
2 Department of Mechanical Engineering (Columbus, USA)
3 Robotique
4 LAG - Laboratoire d'automatique de Grenoble

This paper develops a class of bipedal running controllers based on the hybrid zero dynamics (HZD) framework and discusses related experiments conducted in September 2004 in Grenoble, France. In these experiments, RABBIT, a five-link, four-actuator, planar bipedal robot, executed six consecutive running steps. The observed gait was remarkably human-like, having long stride lengths (approx. 50 cm or 36% of body length), flight phases of significant duration (approx. 100 ms or 25% of step duration), an upright posture, and an average forward rate of 0.6 m/s. A video is available at [7, 17]. In the time allotted for experiments, stability of the gait could not be validated. To put the results into context, background information on hybrid robot modeling, control philosophy, and gait optimization techniques accompany final experimental observations. An additional discussion about some unmodeled dynamic and geometric effects that contributed to implementation difficulties is given.

Mots clés: robot; underactuated; biped; hzd

Mots clés: Sous-actionné; bipède

Domaines: Automatique / Robotique

Ben Morris, Eric Westervelt, Christine Chevallereau, Gabriel Buche, Jessy Grizzle. Achieving Bipedal Running with RABBIT: Six Steps Toward Infinity. Fast Motions in Biomechanics and Robotics, Springer, pp.277-297, 2006, 978-3-540-36118-3. ⟨10.1007/978-3-540-36119-0_13⟩. ⟨hal-01300126⟩