Development of the lower limbs for a humanoid robot

TLDR

The paper presents an overview of developing a novel biped walking machine, Roboray, for humanoid robots. The robot features 13 actuated degrees of freedom with torque sensors on all joints except the waist, uses back‑drivable elastic tendon‑type pitch joint modules, and employs a decentralized control system built on Smart Driver boards. Forward‑walking trials confirmed that the mechanical structure and control system performed as designed.

Abstract

This paper gives an overview of the development of a novel biped walking machine for a humanoid robot, Roboray. This lower-limb robot is designed as an experimental system for studying biped locomotion based on force and torque controlled joints. The robot has 13 actuated DOF and torque sensors are integrated at all the joints except the waist joint. We designed a new tendon type joint modules as a pitch joint drive module, which is highly back-drivable and elastic. We also built a decentralized control system using the small controller boards named Smart Driver. The forward walking experiment with this lower limbs was conducted to test the mechanical structure and control system.