Thesis Problem Definition Proposal: Motion Planning and Control in Biped Robotics

Dynamical bipedal walking has been a key objective in robotics since its origins, due to the human curiosity about artificial anthropomorphic beings which gave rise to the robot concept itself [Capek 1973]. As could be seen in most industrialized countries, the industrial manipulators have found a wide adoption, and there is little space to a major boost in the area [Yonemoto et al. 1985]. Although, the interest is shifting from an industrial point of view to a more domestic one [Asami 1994], where robots can be seen as additional aids to human daily tasks. But, in order to accompany humans, the robot must be able to fluidly move through all the environments in which the human can, and those environments are devised to adapt well to anthropomorphic beings: factories, vehicles, houses, sidewalks, and shopping malls, among others. This way, a robot made to perform well in arbitrary environments will have a great advantage if it is anthropomorphic, so that it could serve well as an personal assistant [Dario et al. 2001]. But the interest on biped robotics is not only for biorobotics itself. Another reason to research anthropomorphic motion is the understanding of human morphology, mechanics and control, from a medical point of view, where robotics could serve as a testing scenario to both theories and technologies concerning human motion (for an example see [Woo et al. 2006]) and, probably, provide technological aids and substitutes to body parts when an impairment is present [Hermini et al. 2001]. Another motivation to the research of biped walking is related to the fact that anthropomorphic motion planning and control is a complex problem that includes