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Enhancing Biped Locomotion on Unknown Terrain Using Tactile Feedback

Human bipedal balance during standing and walking depends on several receptors including the cutaneous receptors in the glabrous skin of the foot sole. It has been shown in human-involved studies that the different areas of the sole have distinct sensitivities and serve a different purpose in both walking and standing. In humanoid robotics, the feedback to keep balance is mainly achieved using force-torque sensors mounted at the robot's ankles. Although these sensors can accurately estimate the center of pressure of a foothold, they cannot provide information about the pressure shape of the footprint and therefore can miss ill terrain conditions during locomotion. In this paper, we present a biologically inspired sole skin sensor based on the robot skin developed at our lab. The robot skin can enhance and complement the ankle force-torque sensors used in balancing and walking controllers by providing additional information that a force-torque sensor cannot produce. This additional information can be used to reconstruct the supporting polygon and the pressure footprint online. We present a case study where a force-torque sensor fails to detect the terrain conditions while the skin succeeds and the information is used to re-plan the footstep position.