Experimental realization of dynamic walking for a human-riding biped robot, HUBO FX-1

This paper describes a control strategy of the stable walking for the human-riding biped robot, HUBO FX-1. HUBO FX-1 largely consists of two legs with 12 d.o.f., a pelvis and a cockpit. A normal adult can easily ride on HUBO FX-1 by means of a foothold, and can change the walking direction and speed continuously through the use of a joystick. Principally, this kind of robot must be able to carry a payload of at least 100 kg in order to carry a person easily. A sufficient payload can be accomplished by two ways. The first is through the choice of a highly efficient actuator. The second is through weight reduction of the robot body frames. As an efficient actuator, a high-power AC servo motor and a backlash-free harmonic drive reduction gear were utilized. Furthermore, the thickness and the size of the aluminum body frames were sufficiently reduced so that the weight of HUBO FX-1 is light enough. The disadvantage of the weight reduction is that HUBO FX-1 was not able to walk stably due to structural vibrati...