Follow-walking motions of a biped humanoid robot

We would like to give biped humanoid robots a follow motion as one of functions capable of supporting humans. Unfortunately, so not much attention has been paid to the researches on human-follow motions up to date. In this paper, a follow-walking control method is described to realize the follow-walking motions, which consists of a pattern synthesis and a balance motion control. First, we generate switchable unit patterns of a biped humanoid robot, based on the human-robot interaction. Second, the unit patterns are synthesized according to the sense of resultant contact forces. Finally, the compensatory motion of the trunk and waist is calculated by a cooperative motion control algorithm for the balance of the biped robot.