Computational Method of Interactions in Simulation of Walking Robots
Tatsuya NAKAMURA, Noriho KOYACHI, Hironori ADACHI
pp. 1-8
DOI:
10.5687/iscie.5.1Abstract
The technology on walking robots is high enough to be applied to various fields in unstructured environments. Simulation is an effective tool to develop the mechanism and control of robots. However, a general-purpose simulator for walking robots does not exist. This paper presents a general computational method of interactions such as friction and collision between feet and environments to simulate the whole motion of robots. Robots are modelled by skeletons composed of any number of legs with any degrees of freedom. Environments are modelled by smooth surface patches. Three types of constraints for feet are considered : no constraints, surface-and point-constraints. The constraints are automatically changed based on the interference of the foot with the environment and its reaction forces, as the walking motion proceeds. Simulation results are given to show the effectiveness using a prototype simulator under development.