Abstract

This paper deals with the development of a conceptual model for the control of a multilink biped during a turning maneuver. The skeletal model is a seven link biped for which the equations of motion are derived. A set of lower limb muscles are idealized by simple force actuators with no co-contraction of agonist-antagonist muscle pairs. A nonlinear control scheme is proposed to guide the model along the desired trajectory and to control ground reaction forces. The input to the system is a desired set of trajectories as functions of time and the patterns of desired ground reaction forces in a turn. One set of such inputs are inferred from the existing literature. With this input, the nonlinear control strategy allows computation of muscular forces needed for the turning maneuver. Verf.-Referat