Sensor and control design of a dynamically stable biped robot

The biped robot "Johnnie" is designed to achieve a dynamically stable gait pattern, allowing for high walking velocities. Very accurate and fast sensors were developed for the machine. In particular the design of the 3D-orientation sensor and the 6-axes force-torque sensor are presented. The control scheme is based on the information from these sensors to deal with unstructured terrain and disturbances. Two different implementations are investigated: a computed torque approach and a trajectory control with adaptive trajectories. Walking speeds of 2.0 km/h have been achieved in experiments.