Legged mobile robot and control program
AssigneeHonda Motor Co., Ltd.
InventorsToru Takenaka, Takashi Matsumoto, Takahide Yoshiike, Kazushi Akimoto, Shinya Shirokura, Minami Asatani
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Abstract
In a legged mobile robot, a pivoting motion of a foot (22) relative to a leg is controlled such that, from an intermediate time point in a period of departure of a leg from a floor to a starting time point of a period of landing of the leg on the floor, an angle (θ) of inclination of the foot (22) of the leg relative to the floor surface gradually approaches zero. This eases impact to the foot of the leg at the time of landing on the floor and prevents a slip or spin of the sole, thereby enabling stable walking or running.
Claims20
A legged mobile robot that travels by driving a plurality of legs connected to a base body thereof while repeating a landing period, during which a floor reaction force acts on a foot of any one of the plurality of legs, and a floating period, during which no floor reaction force acts on the foot of any of the legs,
- said legged mobile robot being configured to drive the plurality of legs such that, at a shift from the floating period to the landing period, a leg is driven such that an inclination angle of a foot of the leg expected to land relative to a floor surface gradually changes and a ground contact surface of the foot and the floor surface become parallel to each other immediately prior to the ground contact surface of the foot landing on the floor surface.
A legged mobile robot which is equipped with a body and a plurality of legs extended downward from the body and which travels by motions of the legs that involve leaving a floor and landing on the floor with feet that can be pivoted with respect to the legs, which travels involve a floating period in which all legs are apart from a floor, comprising:
- a foot inclination angle measuring mechanism configured to measure an inclination angle of a foot relative to the floor surface;
- and
- a foot motion controlling means for controlling a pivoting motion of the foot relative to the corresponding leg such that, from an intermediate time point of a leaving-from-floor period of the leg to a starting time point of a landing period, the inclination angle of the foot of the leg relative to the floor surface measured by the foot inclination angle measuring mechanism gradually reaches zero.
A control program recorded on a non-transitory computer readable medium which is a program imparting a function for controlling a legged mobile robot that travels by repeating a landing period, during which a floor reaction force acts on a foot of any one of a plurality of legs, and a floating period, during which no floor reaction force acts on a foot of any of the legs, by driving the plurality of legs connected to a base body, to a computer mounted in the robot, the control program providing:
- the computer mounted in the robot with a function for controlling the motions of the legs of the robot such that, at a shift from the floating period to the landing period, the inclination angle of the foot of a leg expected to land relative to a floor surface gradually changes, and a ground contact surface of the foot and the floor surface become parallel to each other immediately prior to the ground contact surface of the foot landing on the floor surface.
A control program which is a program imparting a function for controlling a legged mobile robot that comprises a body and a plurality of legs extended downward from the body and travels by actuating the legs to leave a floor and land on the floor with feet, which can be pivoted relative to the legs, to a computer mounted in the robot, the control program providing the computer mounted in the robot with:
- a foot inclination angle measuring function for measuring an inclination angle of a foot relative to a floor surface;
- a foot motion controlling function for controlling a pivoting motion of the foot relative to the corresponding leg such that the inclination angle of the foot of the leg relative to the floor surface measured by the foot inclination angle measuring function gradually reaches zero from the intermediate time point of a leaving-from-floor period of the leg to the starting time point of a landing period;
- and a function for controlling the motions of the legs of the robot such that the robot travels, involving a floating period in which all legs are apart from a floor.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.