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	Humanoid Robot Design The aim of this project is to complete the electromechanical design and dynamic modeling of a biped humanoid robot in collaboration with Quanser. Our goal is to build a highly robust platform which can be used for a variety of research applications for the Adaptive Systems Laboratory. To control the robot during gait, we investigate the use of the Foot Placement Estimator (FPE) algorithm, which assumes the robot is falling and focuses on identifying where it must step in order to restore balance. A control strategy based on a simple state machine and the FPE algorithm has the potential to produce more efficient and robust biped locomotion with human-like gait. The focus of this control strategy would be to restore balance when needed, rather than to constantly maintain balance throughout the gait cycle. We are currently in the process of applying this approach in simulation and will ultimately transfer our control approach to hardware.
			In order to verify the efficiency and efficacy of our proposed walking control strategy, a 14 degree-of-freedom (DOF) lower body bipedal robot was built, including the complete electromechanical design and dynamic modelling of the biped. As part of the development process, we implemented a novel toolchain allowing fast iterations between CAD design and dynamic simulations. A video of the toolchain can be viewed here Machining the physical hardware components was also done on campus by the Engineering Machine Shop. The project was funded under the NSERC Engage Grant with industry collaboration partner Quanser. Development pictures can be found on this Flickr Photo Set Development videos can be found on this YouTube Playlist
	Researchers: Safwan Choudhury, Brandon J DeHart, Dana Kulić Key Publications: S. Choudhury and D. Kulić, Gait Generation via the Foot Placement Estimator for 3D Bipedal Robots, IEEE International Conference on Robotics and Automation, pp. 5669 - 5675, 2013. S. Choudhury, D. Wight and D. Kulić, Rapid Prototyping Toolchain for Humanoid Robotics Applications, IEEE International Conference on Humanoid Robots pp. 817 - 822, 2012. video pdf