Performing acrobatic maneuvers like dynamic jumping in bipedal robots presents significant challenges in terms of actuation, motion planning, and control. Traditional approaches to these tasks often simplify dynamics to enhance computational efficiency, potentially overlooking critical factors such as the control of centroidal angular momentum (CAM) and the variability of centroidal composite rigid body inertia (CCRBI). This letter introduces a novel integrated dynamic planning and control framework, termed centroidal dynamics model-based model predictive control (CDM-MPC), designed for robust jumping control that fully considers centroidal momentum and non-constant CCRBI. The framework comprises an optimization-based kinodynamic motion planner and an MPC controller for real-time trajectory tracking and replanning. Additionally, a centroidal momentum-based inverse kinematics (IK) solver and a landing heuristic controller are developed to ensure stability during high-impact landings. The efficacy of the CDM-MPC framework is validated through extensive testing on the full-sized humanoid robot KUAVO in both simulations and experiments.

The goal of this study is to present a force control scheme for quadrupedal locomotion by adopting observations of biological motor behavior. Specifically, based on the equilibrium point hypothesis, we set up a bio-inspired equilibrium point controller in Cartesian space. The proposed equilibrium point controller modifies the equilibrium point trajectories appropriately over time from two perspectives, which can ensure stable interactions and system equilibrium. One perspective is directly compensating for the posture angle error based on torso posture compensation. The other is based on the foot force tracking algorithm and admittance model. The main contribution of this study is to show how the equilibrium point controller realizes dynamic balance with no input about inertial parameter identification for the robot or terrain information estimation. Overall, the equilibrium point control scheme is simplified for stability problems and is easy to use in practice. Finally, we carried out a series of simulations and experiments to evaluate the effectiveness of the equilibrium point control algorithm. The results demonstrate that the proposed controller may improve dynamic stability and realize compliance performance.

Model-based force control for motion and force tracking faces significant challenges on real quadruped platforms due to the apparent model inaccuracies. In this paper, we present a multi-objective optimal torque control for hydraulic quadruped robots under significant model errors, such as non-modelable hydraulic components, linearization, disturbances, etc. More specifically, the centroidal dynamics are first modeled to project the dynamics of the floating-based whole-body behaviors to the centroidal frame. Model error compensation mechanisms are subsequently developed to track the reference motion of the CoM, torso, and foot-end trajectories, which are mapped into the joint space. Furthermore, a multi-objective optimal torque control scheme is formulated using quadratic programming (QP) to coordinate follow the reference motion and ground reaction forces simultaneously while satisfying all constraints. Finally, we present a series of simulations as well as experiments on a real hydraulic quadruped platform, EHbot. The results demonstrate that the proposed torque control scheme is robust to large model inaccuracies and improves the performance of the overall system.

The landing gear system has the task of bearing the weight of the aircraft, bearing the impact load, and providing the braking function in the process of the aircraft taxiing, take-off, and landing. There are many parameters in the aviation brake pressure servo valve-controlled cylinder system (ABPSVCS) which will have a significant influence on the dynamic behavior of the system. Sensitivity analysis is an effective method to analyze the influence of system parameters on system characteristics, especially for nonlinear systems. The trajectory sensitivity method based on the description of system state space is used for the parameter sensitivity analysis of the ABPSVCS. By grouping various parameters for sensitivity analysis, the law of parameter sensitivity of each group is obtained, and the results are verified by experiments. The results can lay a theoretical and experimental foundation for the related research work of the aviation brake pressure servo valve.

This article presents a mechanical design structure for hydraulic actuators using the principle of series-elastic actuator, considering the restriction of mechanical structure, weight and size, as well as the requirement of high joint torques due to the large payload. An articulated leg was designed to incorporate with two of these elastic elements symmetrically for each joint. Further, for the hydraulic system with a position servo loop, a force control algorithm was particularly proposed and developed for joint torque tracking and Cartesian impedance control. Finally, a number of experiments were carried out on the leg platform, and the experimental results validated the effectiveness of the force control algorithm and the performance of the overall system.