Joint position control using ZMP-based gain switching algorithm for a hydraulic biped humanoid robot

This paper proposes a gain switching algorithm for joint position control of a hydraulic humanoid robot. Accurate position control of the lower body is one of the basic requirements for robust balance and walking control. Joint position control is more difficult for hydraulic robots than it is for electric robots because of an absence of reduction gear and better back-drivability of hydraulic joints. Backdrivability causes external forces and torques to have a large effect on the position of the joints. External ground reaction forces therefore prevent a simple proportional-derivative (PD) controller from realizing accurate and fast joint position control. We propose a state feedback controller for joint position control of the lower body, define three modes of state feedback gains, and switch the gains according to the Zero Moment Point (ZMP) and linear interpolation. Dynamic equations of hydraulic actuators were experimentally derived and applied to a robot simulator. Finally, the performance of the algorithm is evaluated with dynamic simulations.