Ski-type self-balance biped walking for rough terrain

This paper introduces a new approach for humanoid robot quasi-static walking for improving stability performance, which is called ski-type walking. By adding two canes held by hands, the supporting region and stability margin are enlarged in comparison with biped walking. We first study the mechanism of cane-assisted walking by human beings. Based on the study, we develop two ski-type gaits, Crawl_1 and Craw-2, respectively for the humanoid robot Hubo. The stability performance for the two configurations is compared, which leads to the adoption of the Crawl_2 gait. Furthermore the length of the canes is selected to support a feasible while stable Crawl_2 gait. Finally simulation and experiments are performed to verify the new ski-type gait.