Development of a biped robot with toes to improve gait pattern

Since a conventional biped robot has the feet which consist of soles without toes, it seems difficult to walk naturally. One of the most important functions of a biped robot is to walk naturally like human. However, for the human being, toe is very important joint in order to walk naturally. Therefore, for a biped robot, the existence of toe joint much affects gait pattern generation and contributes to natural walking, which is similar to the human gait or faster walking like running. In this paper, a physical structure of a biped robot with toes is developed. The robot has 14 degrees of freedom for the legs. In order to verify the plausibility of the robot design with toes, the effect of the toe joint for gait pattern generation is studied. The gait pattern of the robot with toes is compared with the gait of a conventional biped robot which has soles only without toes by 3D graphical simulation.