Dynamically Transitioning between Surfaces of Varying Inclinations to Achieve Uneven-Terrain Walking

This paper focuses on how to generate dynamic transitions in order to make our robot COMAN (COmpliant huMANoid) dynamically traverse inclined terrains. The novel approach addresses dynamic walking on inclined surfaces by dividing the walking motion into two phases: transition and incline walking. During the transition phase, the humanoid robot performs a 3-dimensional movement in order to transfer its body between surfaces of different inclinations, which is then followed by the incline-walking phase. The transition phase is less trivial to execute than the incline walking itself. In this paper, we first formulate the equations of a 3D (non linear) Inverted Pendulum, and then we derive an equivalent model. Subsequently, we introduce a trajectory generator based on this model and validate it experimentally by performing, with COMAN, dynamic transitions from the horizontal ground to a 10 degrees slope.