Humanoid walking is considered one of the hardest problems in Robotics. Current state-of-the-art humanoid robots are able to achieve high speeds on flat ground. However, they still exhibit agility, dexterity, robustness, flexibility and energy efficiency far below than a typical human does. In this work, we present an omnidirectional walking pattern generator for a humanoid robot. We follow an ...

We present a novel locomotion strategy called legless locomotion that allows a round-bodied legged robot to locomote approximately when it is high-centered. Typically, a high-centered robot is stuck since the robot’s legs do not touch the ground. Legless locomotion uses the legs as a reaction mass to set up oscillatory body rotations which when coupled with ground contact gradually translate th...

The dynamics model considering payload eccentricity and friction effects of an omni-directional mobile robot is first derived using Lagrange’s equation. Based on the dynamics model with uncertainty, a stable adaptive fuzzy control law is derived using the backstepping method via Lyapunov stability theory. In order to compensate for the model uncertainty, a nonlinear damping term and a fuzzy fun...

The timing of movements and of action sequences is difficult when on-line coupling to sensory information is a requirement. That requirement arises in most behavior-based robot architectures, in which relatively low-level and often noisy sensor input is used to initiate and steer action. We show how an attractor dynamics approach to the generation of behavior in such architectures can be extend...

Mobile robot navigation is one of the basic problems in robotics. In this paper, a new approach is proposed for autonomous mobile robot navigation in an unknown environment. The proposed approach is based on learning virtual parallel paths that propel the mobile robot toward the track using a multi-layer, feed-forward neural network. For training, a human operator navigates the mobile robot in ...

This paper addresses a behavior-based fuzzy controller (BFC) for mobile robot wall-following control.The wall-following task is usually used to explore an unknown environment.The proposed BFC consists of three sub-fuzzy controllers, including Straight-based Fuzzy Controller (SFC),Left-based Fuzzy Controller (LFC), and Right-based Fuzzy Controller (RFC).The proposed wall-...

As a robot could be stable statically standing on three or more legs, a six legged walking robot can be highly flexible in movements and perform different missions without dealing with serious kinematic and dynamic problems. An experimental six legged walking robot with 18 degrees of freedom is studied and built in this paper. The kinematic and gait analysis formulations are demonstrated by an e...

Closed-loop, asymptotically stable walking motions are designed for a 5-link, planar bipedal robot model with one degree of underactuation. Parameter optimization is applied to the hybrid zero dynamics, a 1-DOF invariant subdynamics of the full robot model, in order to create asymptotically stable orbits. Tuning the dynamics of this 1 DOF subsystem via optimization is interesting because asympt...

In this paper, a new method was proposed for the navigation of a mobile robot in an unknown dynamic environment. The robot could detect only a limited radius of its surrounding with its sensors and it went on the shortest null space (SNS) toward the goal. In the case of no obstacle, SNS was a direct path from the robot to goal; however, in the presence of obstacles, SNS was a space around the r...

The well-known electro-mechanical analogy that equates current, voltage, resistance, inductance and capacitance to force, velocity, damping, spring constant and mass has a shortcoming in that mass can only be used to simulate a capacitor which has one terminal connected to ground. A new model that was previously proposed by the authors that combines a mass with a pulley (MP) is shown to simulat...