Decentralized Passivity-Based Control With a Generalized Energy Storage Function for Robust Biped Locomotion

This paper details a decentralized passivity-based control (PBC) to improve the robustness of biped locomotion in the presence of gait-generating external torques and parametric errors in the biped model. Previous work demonstrated a passive output for biped systems based on a generalized energy that, when directly used for feedback control, increases the basin of attraction and convergence rate of the biped to a stable limit cycle. This paper extends the concept with a theoretical framework to address both uncertainty in the biped model and a lack of sensing hardware, by allowing the designer to neglect arbitrary states and parameters in the system. This framework also allows the control to be implemented on wearable devices, such as a lower limb exoskeleton or powered prosthesis, without needing a model of the user's dynamics. Simulations on a six-link biped model demonstrate that the proposed control scheme increases the convergence rate of the biped to a walking gait and improves the robustness to perturbations and to changes in ground slope.