Kinematic, Dynamic and Gait Analysis for Navigation of NAO Humanoid Robot in a Cluttered Environment

Abstract

Today’s humanoid robots are viewed as an entertainment robot in a larger sense and as a human assistive robot to some extent. Due to its wide popularity amongst the community, it poses a challenge for researchers to mimic the human dexterity in an artificial biped locomotion system. With the growing technology, these robots are being developed for planetary exploration along with other mobile robots to further improve the maneuverability in a cluttered environment. Also, it represents the platform to incorporate the biomechanics of human locomotion to aid prosthetics and aesthetics.

This dissertation underwent the kinematic, dynamic and gait analysis of humanoid robot walking. The kinematics of humanoid robot is analyzed on NAO humanoid robot in a simulation environment that involves forward and inverse kinematics. The analysis is performed in a view to demonstrate the relationship between the end-effector position and joint angles of the kinematic linkage (legs). Following the kinematics, Zero Moment Point (ZMP) and dynamics of the humanoid robot have been analyzed that focuses on the physics of biped walking in a simulation environment. Additionally, using pseudo inverse kinematics method, a robust gait for NAO robot has been generated and implemented on NAO in the simulation. The applicability of the derived gait has been validated on NAO humanoid robot. Finally, a hybrid GA-ANFIS intelligent method has been derived and implemented for path planning of humanoid robot in a cluttered environment.