Fall Protection of Humanoids Inspired by Human Fall Motion

Abstract

Most of the existing stability control methods for humanoids aim at avoiding falling down, and it is difficult to cope with the sudden fall of robots. However, humanoids is an unstable system which cannot avoid falling down. In this paper, we design a planning method of fall protection for humanoids according to the human fall motion. This method determines the contact position between the robot and the ground by adjusting the motion of the robot when it falls. In order to further reduce the damage to the robot, the appropriate cushioning material installed at the point of collision is selected to absorb the impact. The effectiveness of the proposed method is verified by BHR6P humanoid robot fall experiments.