Local path planning during locomotion over irregular terrain

Abstract

We have been exploring the factors that guide the selection of alternate foot placement during locomotion in a cluttered environment. The results show that when normal landing area is unavailable or undesirable, individuals select an alternate foot placement that minimizes changes to the normal gait trajectory and ensures dynamic stability. These experiments shed light on fundamental issue of local path planning and are relevant to the design of legged robots designed to function in an unstructured environment.