Human-like control strategy of a bipedal walking model

This paper presents a two-level control strategy for bipedal walking mechanism that accounts for implicit control of push-off on the between-step control level and tracking of imposed holonomic constraints on kinematic variables via feedback control on within-step control level. The proposed control strategy was tested in a biologically inspired model with minimal set of segments that allows evolution of human-like push-off and power absorption. We investigated controller’s stability characteristics by using Poincaré return map analysis in eight simulation cases and further evaluated the performance of the biped walking model in terms of how variations in torso position and gait velocity relate to push-off and power absorption. The results show that the proposed control strategy, with the same set of controller’s gains, enables stable walking in a variety of chosen gait parameters and can accommodate to various trunk inclinations and gait velocities in a similar way as seen in humans.