Biorobotic foot model applied to BIPMAN robot

In this paper, we intend to better understand the role of the foot during a walking cycle. A biomechanical analysis of the foot is presented in order to enhance its characteristics and its evolution during the stance phase. It leads to the definition of sub-phases where the foot roles are displayed. According to this analysis, we propose a foot model able, to reproduce the main functions and present how this model has been physically designed in BIPMAN´s project. The main originality of this structure is that it is entirely pneumatic actuated which provide a good damping and a soft behaviour in regard with impacts. The hardware (mechanic and electronic) is associated to the software (control design) to make the foot of BIPMAN behave as close as possible to a real foot. We briefly recall the general control architecture we use to make the human-like structure move, before presenting simulations of a whole walking cycle. A special attention is turned to the behaviour of the ankle and of the metatarsal joints.