A Humanoid Robot that Breaks Wooden Boards Applying Impulsive Force

When a human needs to generate a large force, the human will try to apply an impulsive force cooperating whole body. However, exerting impulsive force is one of the most difficult tasks for humanoid robots, because a reaction force caused by the applied impulsive force may bring the humanoid robot down. This paper discusses a humanoid robot motion to generate a large force utilizing an impact. Breaking wooden boards by Karate-chop is taken as a case study because it is a typical example of tasks that utilize impulsive force. A humanoid robot motion for the Karate-chop is carefully designed to maximize the speed of a hand keeping the stability. In order to validate the designed motion, experiments are carried out using a small humanoid robot Fujitsu HOAP-2. In the experiments, three kinds of wooden boards are tested to break by the Karate-chop. The strength of wooden boards is estimated striking the boards with a free-falling plummet. Stabilizing control is also applied to the robot in order to stabilize the body after the impact. The experimentation results are reported in the paper