Direct Centroidal Control for Balanced Humanoid Locomotion

Abstract: We present an integrated approach to locomotion and balancing of humanoid robots based on direct centroidal control. Our method uses a five-mass description of a humanoid. It generates whole-body motions from desired foot trajectories and centroidal parameters of the robot. A set of simplified models is used to formulate general and intuitive control laws, which are then applied in real-time for estimating and regulating the center of mass position and orientation of the multibody's principal axes of inertia. The combination of proposed algorithms produces a stretched-leg gait with naturally looking upper body motions. As only a 6-axis IMU and joint encoders are necessary for the implementation, the portability between robots is high. Our method has been experimentally verified using an igus Humanoid Open Platform, demonstrating whole-body locomotion and push rejection capabilities.