Overcoming obstacles with a home walking robot

Abstract

The paper considers the principles of building a home walking robot capable of walking on complex surfaces – stairs and ladders. A home walking robot must walk confidently on various flat surfaces and be able to step over small obstacles. To detect obstacles and scan the surface, the robot has a simplified scanning system based on inexpensive TOF sensors for measuring distances. A mathematical model of the robot’s legs, which is used to control the drives, is presented. A model of the robot’s sensor system is presented, which is used to detect obstacle parameters and build a height map. Two ways of overcoming obstacles are considered – stepping over small obstacles and walking on wide stairs. An estimate of the maximum size of obstacles is given, which are determined by the geometric dimensions of the robot’s legs and the parameters of the sensor system. The principles of walking on narrow stairs are formulated. Modeling of the proposed ways to overcome obstacles is performed. The simulation showed acceptable stability of the robot when walking. It is shown that the proposed methods of overcoming obstacles have low computational complexity. This reduces the computing power requirements of the home walking robot control system and increases battery life.