Abstract
This paper is an overview of the humanoid robot Rh-1, the second phase of the Rh project, which was launched by the Robotics Lab at the Carlos III University of Madrid in 2002. The robot mechanical design includes the specifications development in order to construct a platform, which is capable of stable biped walking. At first, the robots' weights were calculated in order to obtain the inverse dynamics and to select the actuators. After that, mechanical specifications were introduced in order to verify the robot's structural behaviour with different experimental gaits. In addition, an important aspect is the joints design when their axes are crossed, which is called 'Joints of Rectangular Axes' JRA. The problem with these joints is obtaining two or more degrees of freedom DOF in small space. The construction of a humanoid robot also includes the design of hardware and software architectures. The main advantage of the proposed hardware and software architectures is the use of standardised solutions frequently used in the automation industry and commercially available hardware components. It provides scalability, modularity and application of standardised interfaces and brings the design of the complex control system of the humanoid robot out of a closed laboratory to industry. Stable walking is the most essential ability for the humanoid robot. The three dimensional Linear Inverted Pendulum Model 3D-LIPM and the Cart-table models had been used in order to achieve natural and dynamic biped walking. Humanoid dynamics is widely simplified by concentrating its mass in the centre of gravity COG and moving it following the natural inverted pendulum laws 3D-LIPM or by controlling the cart motion Cart-table model. An offline-calculated motion pattern does not guarantee the walking stability of the humanoid robot. Control architecture for the dynamic humanoid robot walking was developed, which is able to make online modifications of the motion patterns in order to adjust it to the continuously changing environment. Experimental results concerning biped locomotion of the Rh-1 humanoid robot are presented and discussed.
Highlights
Since industrial robots cannot be adapted to assist human activities in everyday environments such as in hospitals, homes, offices, there is a growing need for robots that can interact with a person in a human-like manner
One of the most exciting challenges that has faced the engineering community in recent decades was obtaining a machine of similar form, a humanoid robot, that could do the same activities as a human being in addition to walking in the same manner
We introduce the reference centre of gravity (COG) motion to make the robot walk, so we can preplane the stable walking pattern and introduce it to the humanoid robot
Summary
Since industrial robots cannot be adapted to assist human activities in everyday environments such as in hospitals, homes, offices, there is a growing need for robots that can interact with a person in a human-like manner. Wheel robots sometimes cannot be used in such types of environments because of the obvious restrictions posed by the use of wheels. It is impossible for this kind of robot to go downstairs and upstairs or to clear some obstacles on the floor. Humanoid robots will work in a human atmosphere with greater effectiveness than any other types of robots because the great majority of environments where they would interact reciprocally with a human are constructed taking into account the dimensions of the latter. There are professionals who adduce that for a human being to interact naturally with a machine, it must look like him
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