Device for absorbing floor-landing shock for legged mobile robot

• US 20050077856A1
• Filed: 12/11/2002
• Published: 04/14/2005
• Est. Priority Date: 12/25/2001
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Honda Giken Kogyo Kabushiki Kaisha (Honda Motor Company)
• Original Assignee: Honda Giken Kogyo Kabushiki Kaisha (Honda Motor Company)
• Inventors: Yoshiike, Takahide, Hamaya, Kazushi, Gomi, Hiroshi, Akimoto, Kazushi, Matsumoto, Takashi, Yokoyama, Taro, Takenaka, Toru, Nishimura, Yoichi, Takemura, Yoshinari
• Granted Patent: US 6,967,456 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 318/568.120
• CPC Class Codes: B25J 19/0091 Shock absorbers in general F16F
• CPC Class Codes: B62D 57/032 with alternately or sequentially lifted supporting base and legs; with alternately or sequentially lifted feet or skid B62D57/024 takes precedence
• CPC Class Codes: F16F 9/0481 provided in an opening to the exterior atmosphere

Abstract

A landing shock absorbing device 18 provided in a foot mechanism 6 of a leg of a robot comprises an inflatable and compressible bag-like member 19 (a variable capacity element) on a bottom face side of the foot mechanism 6. The bag-like member 19 is constructed of an elastic material such as rubber. Air in the atmosphere can flow into and out of the bag-like member 19 by inflow/outflow means 20 provided with a solenoid valve 27 and the like. In a landing state of the foot mechanism 6 and in a state immediately after the foot mechanism shifts from the landing state to a lifting state, the solenoid valve 27 is closed to maintain the bag-like member 19 in a compressed state. Furthermore, during the bag-like member 19 in the inflating state during the lifting state of the foot mechanism 6, by controlling timing when the solenoid valve 27 is switched from a valve opening state to a valve closing state, a height of the bag-like member 19 in a compression direction is controlled to be a height suitable for a gait type of the robot. Thereby, posture stability of the robot can be secured easily while reducing a impact load in the landing motion of the leg of the legged mobile robot, and further, a lightweight configuration can be achieved.

Claims

1. A landing shock absorbing device of a legged mobile robot moving by lifting and landing motions of a plurality of legs that can make contact with the ground through a ground-contacting face portion of a foot mechanism, respectively, comprising:

a variable capacity element provided in the foot mechanism of each leg, each variable capacity element being compressed by undergoing a floor reaction force during the landing motion of an associated leg and being inflatable when no longer undergoing the floor reaction force at least by the lifting motion of the associated leg, thereby allowing fluid to flow into the variable capacity element with the inflation and to flow out of an interior portion of the variable capacity element with the compression thereof; and

an inflow/outflow means for communicating the fluid into the variable capacity element while inflating the variable capacity element in a lifting state of the associated leg and flowing communicating the fluid out of the variable capacity element with the compression of the variable capacity element caused by the floor reaction force,

wherein outflow resistance is generated during the outflow of the fluid in the variable capacity element by the inflow/outflow means,

the landing shock absorbing device comprising compressed state maintaining means for maintaining the variable capacity element in the compressed state in a period from after the variable capacity element is compressed at least by the landing motion of the associated leg until immediately after the associated leg enters the lifting state by the lifting motion thereof.

2. The landing shock absorbing device according to claim 1, wherein the fluid comprises a compressible fluid.

3. The landing shock absorbing device according to claim 2, wherein the legged mobile robot comprises a robot in which a position and a posture of the foot mechanism are controlled by compliance control so as to allow a moment about an axis in a horizontal direction for the floor reaction force acting on the foot mechanism of each leg to follow a predetermined desired moment.

4. The landing shock absorbing device according to claim 1, wherein the variable capacity element is constructed of a deformable bag-like member provided on a bottom face side of the foot mechanism of the associated leg to make contact with the ground ahead of the ground-contacting face portion of the foot mechanism of the associated leg during the landing motion of said associated leg.

5. The landing shock absorbing device according to claim 1, wherein the compressed state maintaining means maintains the variable capacity element in the compressed state by blocking off inflow of the fluid into the variable capacity element at least by the inflow/outflow means.

6. The landing shock absorbing device according to claim 1, wherein the compressed state maintaining means judges a period of time when the variable capacity element is maintained in the compressed state based on time information of the lifting/landing motions of the associated leg that is determined according to a desired gait during the movement of the legged mobile robot.

7. The landing shock absorbing device according to claim 1, further comprising a sensor for detecting whether or not the foot mechanism of each leg is in contact with the ground through the ground-contacting face portion, wherein the compressed state maintaining means judges a period of time when the variable capacity element is maintained in the compressed state based on detection data of the sensor.

8. The landing shock absorbing device according to claim 1, comprising inflation control means for controlling an inflow amount of the fluid into the variable capacity element by the inflow/outflow means according to a gait type of the legged mobile robot so that a size of the variable capacity element in a compression direction becomes a predetermined size according to the gait type during the inflation of the variable capacity element in the lifting state of the associated leg.

9. The landing shock absorbing device according to claim 8, wherein the inflation control means judges whether or not the size of the variable capacity element in the compression direction has inflated to the predetermined size based on inflow time of the fluid into the variable capacity element after the operation of maintaining the variable capacity element in the compressed state by the compressed state maintaining means is released, and when judging that the size of the variable capacity element in the compression direction has inflated to the predetermined size, the inflation control means blocks off the inflow of the fluid into the variable capacity element by the inflow/outflow means.

10. The landing shock absorbing device according to claim 8, further comprising a sensor for detecting a physical quantity that varies according to the size of the variable capacity element in the compression direction, wherein the inflation control means judges whether or not the size of the variable capacity element in the compression direction has inflated to the predetermined size based on detection data of the sensor after the operation of maintaining the variable capacity element in the compressed state by the compressed state maintaining means is released, and when judging that the size of the variable capacity element in the compression direction has inflated to the predetermined size, the inflation control means blocks off the inflow of the fluid into the variable capacity element by the inflow/outflow means.

11. The landing shock absorbing device according to claim 8, further comprising a first sensor for detecting a pressure inside of the variable capacity element and a second sensor for detecting the size of the variable capacity element in the compression direction, wherein the compressed state maintaining means and the inflation control means set a pattern of change with time of a desired pressure inside of the variable capacity element and a pattern of change with time of a desired size of the variable capacity element in the compression direction according to the gait type of the legged mobile robot, and control the inflow/outflow of the fluid into the variable capacity element by the inflow/outflow means so that the pressure and the size detected by the first sensor and the second sensor, respectively, vary in keeping with the patterns of change with time of the desired pressure and the desired sizes respectively.