Andy Ruina's group at Cornell will master the use of foot placement as a means for balance in robotic walking. Ruina's previous research shows that, in principle, a robot could walk, say, 10-20 km on a single battery charge much like a person can walk a similar distance on energy from a good meal. In practice, however, typical robots today only walk tens of meters. The efficient machines fall down too often. The stable machines run out of energy. Today's robots are either efficient or stable, but not both. This shortcoming represents a lack of understanding of the nature of balance using foot placement.
Ruina's approach will build on his Cornell lab's success in making bipedal robots whose energy use, per unit distance and mass, is comparable to that of humans. The new robots will improve on the robustness in the previous efficient machines by using controlled foot placement for balance.
Successful design and construction of the proposed new robots will demonstrate the utility of holding energetic efficiency, control simplicity and control robustness paramount in the design of humanoid mechanisms. Further, general understanding of machine efficiency and stability will be enhanced.
