A Minimum-Slip Attitude Control Method for the Erebus Walking Robot

摘要

In this report, a method for attitude control of statically-stable walking robots is developed such that slip is minimized when the body is leveled by using only the actuators which cause vertical link motions. If all legs of a walker have three independent translational degrees of freedom, then an attitude control method that uses all actuators may be used to level the body with no foot slippage. However, there are some advantages in reducing the number of controllable degrees-of-freedom, as with the Erebus walker. The task is then to determine the best method to adjust the attitude of the walker body such that foot slippage and the build-up of internal link forces is minimized. The method that does this--the minimum-slip z-axes attitude control method--is developed in this technical report for that purpose.