Bipedal walking by humanoid robot with cane — Preventive usage of cane based on impulse force

In this paper, we propose the method that acquires reaction force using a cane. A humanoid uses the cane in order to prevent falling by deriving optimal cane position and reaction force. We define the optimal cane position as Capture Point (CP). Arranging the cane to CP enable to keep the COG in support polygon even if falling occurs. That is, the robot realizes passive prevention of falling by arranging the cane to CP. The optimal reaction force is calculated as impulse forces from the relationship between the energy required to the recovery of posture and the work by the impulse forces. The robot realize active prevention of falling, deciding the timing that should recover the posture, and hitting the cane in order to acquire the impulse forces. This timing is led from comparison of locomotion rewards based on Falling Risk and injected energy. We conduct a walking experiment with disturbance for validness of the preventive usage. Preventive usage realizes passive and active prevention of falling in the experiment.