Robust optimal planning and control of non-periodic bipedal locomotion with a centroidal momentum model

AbstractThis study presents a theoretical method for planning and controlling agile bipedal locomotion based on robustly tracking a set of non-periodic keyframe states. Based on centroidal momentum dynamics, we formulate a hybrid phase-space planning and control method that includes the following key components: i a step transition solver that enables dynamically tracking non-periodic keyframe states over various types of terrain; ii a robust hybrid automaton to effectively formulate planning and control algorithms; iii a steering direction model to control the robot's heading; iv a phase-space metric to measure distance to the planned locomotion manifolds; and v a hybrid control method based on the previous distance metric to produce robust dynamic locomotion under external disturbances. Compared with other locomotion methodologies, we have a large focus on non-periodic gait generation and robustness metrics to deal with disturbances. This focus enables the proposed control method to track non-periodic keyframe states robustly over various challenging terrains and under external disturbances, as illustrated through several simulations.