Optimization and Control of Dynamic Humanoid Running and Jumping

Abstract

Animals in nature display a nearly seamless capability to navigate the world around them.Whether running up a steep mountain trail, weaving through a dense forest, or jumping to clear obstacles, legged animals are capable to dynamically negotiate challenging terrains with grace and efficiency.The development of legged machines with even a portion of this legged mobility would provide great benefit to applications in defense, search and rescue, and planetary exploration.The objective of this dissertation is to make a significant contribution towards the dynamic capabilities of legged machines, more specifically as applied to humanoid robots.Humanoid robots represent one potential platform to study legged mobility.Compared to other legged morphologies, humanoids have increased potential for application in human-inhabited environments due to their structural similarity to humans.Despite the surge of work on humanoid robotics in the recent decade, current machines are not yet capable of any significant dynamic mobility.The development of control systems for dynamic humanoids is a difficult task given their high number of degrees of freedom, which require continuous coordination, as well as their complex nonlinear dynamics, which change fundamentally in the presence of contacts with the ground.Performance of dynamic movements is further complicated by frequent periods of static instability, requiring continuous motion to prevent a catastrophic fall.Even for a basic dynamic movement, such as a high-speed run, current approaches Publications