Design and control of a low-cost bipedal robot

Abstract

This paper addresses the development and control of a low-cost bipedal robot. The main goal is to evaluate different control strategies on a robot built with economical components. We describe the mechanical design, electronics and computer hardware of the biped, and introduce a simple trajectory generation method for a statically stable walk. The stability of the given trajectory is validated by simulated walk with the Simmechanics toolbox of Matlab and by manually calculating ZMP trajectories. This is followed by examining the effect of certain simplifications on torques and ZMP trajectories, such as using the Inverted Pendulum Mode or neglecting centripetal and Coriolis forces, gyroscopic effect or even the moment of inertia.