Abstract

Biped balance control strategy is difficult to design as biped locomotion suffers from high-dimensional action spaces, underactuated dynamics, and unstable joint controls. We propose a generalized balance control strategy that can synthesize robust biped walking locomotion. The generalization consists of two parts, a coordinated joint control and generalized ground height feedback. We also conduct principle component analysis on generated locomotion to further improve the state used in finite state machine. Systems employing proportional-derivative controllers face the trade-off between simulation efficiency and effectiveness. We explore and exploit a stable variant of proportional-derivative controller to enhance the simulation process. Our main contributions are improving the robustness of biped control against upward steps in real time, and generating more torque-efficient and smoother simulations.

Demo Video

This video shows the effectiveness of generalized ground height feedback to handle unexpected upward steps and slopes in 2D.