Design of a Neural Controller for Walking of a 5-Link Planar Biped Robot via Optimization [chapter]

Nasser Sadati, Guy A., Kaveh Akbari
2010 Human-Robot Interaction  
Source: Human-Robot Interaction, Book edited by: Daisuke Chugo, ISBN 978-953-307-051-3, pp. 288, February 2010, INTECH, Croatia, downloaded from SCIYO.COM www.intechopen.com Human-Robot Interaction 268 Passive Dynamic walkers (PDW) [11] with curved feet in single support phase, the ZMP heuristic is not applicable. Westervelt in [12] has used the Hybrid Zero Dynamics (HZD) [13] , [14] and Poincaré mapping method [15]-[18] for stability of RABBIT using underactuated phase. The controller proposed
more » ... in this approach is organized around the hybrid zero dynamics so that the stability analysis of the closed loop system may be reduced to a one dimensional Poincaré mapping problem. HZD involves the judicious choice of a set of holonomic constraints that were imposed on the robot via feedback control [19] . Extracting the eigenvalues of Poincaré return map is commonly used for analyzing PDW robots. But using of eigenvalues of Poincaré return maps assumes periodicity and is valid only for small deviation from limit cycle [20] . The ZMP criterion has become a very powerful tool for trajectory generation in walking of biped robots. However, it needs a stiff joint control of the prerecorded trajectories and this leads to poor robustness in unknown rough terrain [20] while humans and animals show marvelous robustness in walking on irregular terrains. It is well known in biology that there are Central Pattern Generators (CPG) in spinal cord coupling with musculoskeletal system [21]-[23]. The CPG and the feedback networks can coordinate the body links of the vertebrates during locomotion. There are several mathematical models which have been proposed for a CPG. Among them, Matsuoka's model [24]-[26] has been studied more. In this model, a CPG is modeled by a Neural Oscillator (NO) consisting of two mutually inhibiting neurons. Each neuron in this model is represented by a nonlinear differential equation. This model has been used by Taga [22], [23] and Miyakoshi [27] in biped robots. Kimura [28], [29] has used this model at the hip joints of quadruped robots. The robot studied in this chapter is a 5-link planar biped walker in the sagittal plane with point feet. The model for such robot is hybrid [30] and it consists of single support phase and a discrete map to model the frictionless impact and the instantaneous double support phase. In this chapter, the goal is to coordinate and control the body links of the robot by CPG and feedback network. The outputs of CPG are the target angles in the joint space, where P controllers at joints have been used as servo controllers. For tuning the parameters of the CPG network, the control problem of the biped walker has been defined as an optimization problem. It has been shown that such a control system can produce a stable limit cycle (i.e. stride). The structure of this chapter is as follows. Section 2 models the walking motion consisting of single support phase and impact model. Section 3 describes the CPG model and tuning of its parameters. In Section 4, a new feedback network is proposed. In Section 5, for tuning the weights of the CPG network, the problem of walking control of the biped robot is defined as an optimization problem. Also the structure of the Genetic algorithm for solving this problem is described. Section 6 includes simulation results in MATLAB environment. Finally, Section 7 contains some concluding remarks.
doi:10.5772/8144 fatcat:ez75hveu2nczlp7dety2qwpsfu