Foot placement for planar bipeds with point feet

Abstract

When humanoid robots are going to be used in society, they should be capable to maintain the balance. Knowing where to step appears to be crucially important to remain balanced. This paper contributes the foot placement indicator (FPI), an extension to the foot placement estimator (FPE) for planar bipeds with point feet and an arbitrary number of non-massless links. The method uses conservation of energy to determine where the planar biped needs to step to remain in balance. Simulations of the FPI show improved foot placement for balance with respect to the FPE.