The Visual Categorization of Humanoid Movement as Natural

We examined naturalness judgements of movements generated by different control strategies with the goal of producing natural looking movements on humanoid robots and virtual humans. We displayed motion clips on both a humanoid robot and a computer graphic character. Fourteen synthetic motion generation algorithms were developed based onhuman motor production theories. Human movement was also motion captured. Experimental results relate the actuator bandwidth, the level of computational complexity in motion generation, and the perceived naturalness of motion. In Experiment 1 it was found that for the humanoid robot, low ratings of naturalness were obtained for rapid movement. However Experiment 2 indicated that this effect appeared to not be due to specific features of the motor production techniques but instead due to a movement artifact generated by the humanoid robot

The Visual Categorization of Humanoid Movement as Natural

We examined naturalness judgements of movements generated by different control strategies with the goal of producing natural looking movements on humanoid robots and virtual humans. We displayed motion clips on both a humanoid robot and a computer graphic character. Fourteen synthetic motion generation algorithms were developed based onhuman motor production theories. Human movement was also motion captured. Experimental results relate the actuator bandwidth, the level of computational complexity in motion generation, and the perceived naturalness of motion. In Experiment 1 it was found that for the humanoid robot, low ratings of naturalness were obtained for rapid movement. However Experiment 2 indicated that this effect appeared to not be due to specific features of the motor production techniques but instead due to a movement artifact generated by the humanoid robot

Biped robot walking control on inclined planes with fuzzy parameter adaptation

The bipedal structure is suitable for a robot functioning in the human environment, and assuming assistive roles. However, the bipedal walk is a poses a difficult control problem. Walking on even floor is not satisfactory for the applicability of a humanoid robot. This paper presents a study on bipedal walk on inclined planes. A Zero Moment Point (ZMP) based reference generation technique is employed. The orientation of the upper body is adjusted online by a fuzzy logic system to adapt to different walking surface slopes. This system uses a sampling time larger than the one of the joint space position controllers. A newly defined measure of the oscillatory behavior of the body pitch angle and the average value of the pelvis pitch angle are used as inputs to the fuzzy adaptation system. A 12-degrees-of-freedom (DOF) biped robot model is used in the full-dynamics 3-D simulations. Simulations are carried out on even floor and inclined planes with different slopes. The results indicate that the fuzzy adaptation algorithms presented are successful in enabling the robot to climb slopes of 5.6 degrees (10 percent)

Natural ZMP trajectories for biped robot reference generation

The control of a biped humanoid is a challenging task due to the hard-to-stabilize dynamics. Walking reference trajectory generation is a key problem. Linear Inverted Pendulum Model (LIPM) and Zero Moment Point (ZMP) Criterion based approaches in stable walking reference generation are reported. In these methods, generally, the ZMP reference during a stepping motion is kept fixed in the middle of the supporting foot sole. This kind of reference generation lacks naturalness, in that, the ZMP in the human walk does not stay fixed, but it moves forward under the supporting foot. This paper proposes a reference generation algorithm based on the LIPM and moving support foot ZMP references. The application of Fourier series approximation simplifies the solution and it generates a smooth ZMP reference. A simple inverse kinematics based joint space controller is used for the tests of the developed reference trajectory through full-dynamics 3D simulation. A 12 DOF biped robot model is used in the simulations. Simulation studies suggest that the moving ZMP references are more energy efficient than the ones with fixed ZMP under the supporting foot. The results are promising for implementations

Humanoid robot walking control on inclined planes

The humanoid bipedal structure is suitable for a assitive robot functioning in the human environment. However, the bipedal walk is a difficult control problem. Walking just on even floor is not satisfactory for the applicability of a humanoid robot. This paper presents a study on bipedal walk on inclined planes. A Zero Moment Point (ZMP) based reference generation technique is employed. The orientation of the feet is adjusted online by a fuzzy logic system to adapt to different walking surface slopes. This system uses a sampling time larger than the one of the joint space position controllers. The average value of the body pitch angle is used as the inputs to the fuzzy logic system. A foot pitch orientation compensator implemented independently for the two feet complements the fuzyy controller. A 12-degrees-of-freedom (DOF) biped robot model is used in the full-dynamics 3-D simulations. Simulations are carried out on even floor and inclined planes with different slopes. The results indicate that the control method presented is successful in enabling the robot to climb slopes of 8.5 degrees (15 percent grade)