EP-WAR3 biped robot for climbing and descending stairs

Abstract

A biped walking robot, named EP-WAR3 (Electro-Pneumatic-Walking-Robot), has been designed, built and tested at LARM (Laboratory of Robotics and Mechatronics) in Cassino. EP-WAR3 is provided with a suitable binary pneumatic actuation in order to be controlled through a common PLC (Programmable-Logic-Controller) as an event-based system in an on/off environment. The walking stability of the biped robot is obtained by using suction-cups, which are installed on the underside of each foot. EP-WAR3 is able to walk along a straight line with two different step sizes, turn right and left, and to climb and to descend stairs. A suitable motion analysis and programming technique of the PLC controller is proposed in order to obtain suitable walking capabilities and flexibility of the robot.