Sliding Mode Control Based on Virtual Suspension Model for Controlling Posture and Vibration of Six-Legged Walking Robot

In this paper, we proposed a robust control method based on the virtual suspension model for the purpose of keeping the posture stability of the robot body when the robot is walking on irregular terrain. This method considers the active control input and disturbances from collisions and the slippage between the foot of the robot and the ground, and the dynamic change of the supported weight of the robot. We applied sliding mode control to the posture stability of a six-legged walking robot which is developed in our Laboratory and named TRUTH, on the basis of designing a suspension model which has virtual springs and dampers in the vertical direction, the directions of the pitch angle and the roll angle, respectively. The proposed method is discussed using the walking experimental results of the developed six-legged walking robot.