Development, Analysis, and Control of Series Elastic Actuator-Driven Robot Leg

Area of Science:

• Robotics
• Biomechanics
• Control Systems

Background:

• The Spring Loaded Inverted Pendulum (SLIP) model simplifies human locomotion analysis.
• SLIP serves as a template for robotic human-like movement, but robot dynamics pose challenges.
• Achieving pure mass-spring behavior and robust operational space control is crucial for SLIP-based robots.

Purpose of the Study:

• To develop a robot leg capable of realizing mass-spring behavior during ground interaction.
• To implement robust position control for articulated robots in the SLIP operational space.
• To validate a novel control methodology for a biarticular robot leg.

Main Methods:

• Developed a robot leg utilizing Series Elastic Actuators (SEA) for ground interaction.
• Implemented a robust hybrid control method for the SEA-driven robot leg.
• Incorporated biarticular coordination and Rotating Workspace (RW) control for enhanced torque transmission and specialized control.

Main Results:

• The SEA-driven robot leg demonstrated the ability to achieve desired mass-spring behavior.
• The hybrid control method provided robust position control in the operational space.
• Biarticular coordination effectively transmitted actuator torque, validated through experiments.

Conclusions:

• The developed robot leg and control strategy successfully address the challenges of SLIP-based robotic locomotion.
• This approach enables robots to exhibit human-like running dynamics with enhanced control.
• The findings contribute to advancements in legged robotics and bio-inspired locomotion.