SLIP-Based Concept of Combined Limb and Body Control of Force-Driven Robots

Abstract

Many different approaches in hard- and software have been investigated to achieve bipedal locomotion. They can be partitioned into two separate classes: Mathematical approaches, offering provable stability, and bio-inspired ones, reproducing natural observations. The paper at hand presents a new concept to overcome this separation. By generalizing several SLIP variations (Spring Loaded Inverted Pendulum), a new type of hardware abstraction, the so-called Central Mass Model (CMM), is introduced. The CMM is designed to directly support the execution of bio-inspired control approaches, while its physical simplicity still allows for mathematical proofs. A controller, implementing the CMM abstraction on a force-driven robot, is derived and described in detail for the bipedal robot Carl.