Walking-wheeling dual mode strategy for humanoid robot, DRC-HUBO+

Abstract

For robots, a flexible approach is very important. Even when the robot is a humanoid, it does not have to perfectly mimic human motion. If necessary, the humanoid robot can adapt to other technologies even when these technologies make it different from humans. In a real environment or a disaster environment, humanoid robots are a good solution to assist humans. However, the stability problem of biped locomotion remains. In this paper, we introduce a new strategy of attaching a wheel to our humanoid robot in order to achieve mobility efficiency with a bipedal walking and wheel driven mode. Additionally, this strategy can enhance the stability. Through the proposed method, the humanoid robot can traverse uneven terrain and climb stairs with a walking motion, and can move safely with wheels on the ground. In addition, a method will be presented that can enhance the performance of wheel movement by using redundant joints and sensors on the humanoid robot. Various experiments and the DARPA Robotics Challenge results validate the efficiency and the feasibility of the proposed strategy.