Momentum control of humanoid robots with series elastic actuators

Humanoid robots may require a degree of compliance at joint level for improving efficiency, shock tolerance, and safe interaction with humans. The presence of joint elasticity, however, complexifies the control design of humanoid robots. This paper proposes a control framework to extend momentum based controllers developed for stiff actuation to the case of series elastic actuators. The key point is to consider the motor velocities as an intermediate control input, and then apply high-gain control to stabilise the desired motor velocities achieving momentum control. Simulations carried out on a model of the robot iCub verify the soundness of the proposed approach.

2017 IEEE/RSJ International Conference on Intelligent Robots and Systems (IROS)