Compliant Foot System Design for Bipedal Robot

Abstract

This thesis presents a new foot system for biped walking on uneven terrain and its design flow. The author proposed a point-contact type foot with hydraulic fluid balance mechanism. The foot system consists of four contact points each of which equipped with a force sensing resistor (FSR) to detect the landing state. The foot generates a support polygon on uneven terrain by using three or four contact points. Stabilization of contact state, estimation of the zero moment point (ZMP) position, absorption of landing impact and rapidly become rigid after stable contact state is achieved are the main advantages of the proposed foot system. Landing patterns with dorsiflexion and plantarflexion are proposed to further increase the adaptability of the proposed foot on higher raised platform. Several experiments had been conducted to justify the feasibility of the proposed foot system design.