Design and control of the humanoid robot SURALP

SURALP is a 29 degrees-of-freedom full-body walking humanoid robot designed and constructed at Sabanci University - Turkey. The human-sized robot is actuated by DC motors, belt and pulley systems and Harmonic Drive reduction gears. The sensory equipment consists of joint encoders, force/torque sensors, inertial measurement systems and cameras. The control hardware is based on a dSpace digital signal processor. This paper reviews the design of this robot and presents experimental walking results. A posture zeroing procedure is followed after manual zeroing of the robot joints. A variety of controllers for landing impact reduction, early landing trajectory modification, foot–ground orientation compliance, body inclination and Zero Moment Point (ZMP) regulation, and independent joint position controllers are used in zeroing and walking. A smooth walking trajectory is employed. Experimental results indicate that the reference generation and control algorithms are successful in achieving a stable and continuous walk.