Spatiotemporal synchronization of biped walking patterns with multiple external inputs by style-phase adaptation

In this paper, we propose a framework for generating coordinated periodic movements of robotic systems with multiple external inputs. We developed an adaptive pattern generator model that is composed of a two-factor observation model with a style parameter and phase dynamics with a phase variable. The style parameter controls the spatial patterns of the generated trajectories, and the phase variable manages its temporal profiles. By exploiting the style-phase separation in the pattern generation, we can independently design adaptation schemes for the spatial and temporal profiles of the pattern generator to multiple external inputs. To validate the effectiveness of our proposed method, we applied it to a user-exoskeleton model to achieve user-adaptive walking assistance for which the exoskeleton robot's movements need to be coordinated with the user walking patterns and environment. As a result, the exoskeleton robot successfully performed stable biped walking behaviors for walking assistance even when the style of the observed walking pattern and the period were suddenly changed.