Rate of change of angular momentum and balance maintenance of biped robots

In order to engage in useful activities, upright legged creatures must be able to maintain balance. Despite recent advances, the understanding, prediction and control of biped balance in realistic dynamical situations remain an unsolved problem and the subject of much research in robotics and biomechanics. Here we study the fundamental mechanics of the rotational stability of multi-body systems with the goal of identifying a general stability criterion. Our research focuses on H_G, the rate of change of centroidal angular momentum of a robot, as the physical quantity containing its stability information. We propose three control strategies using H_G that can be used for stability recapture of biped robots. For free walk on horizontal ground, a derived criterion refers to a point on the foot/ground surface of a robot where the total ground reaction force would have to act such that H_G=0. This new criterion generalizes earlier concepts such as GCoM, CoP, ZMP, and FRI point, and extends their applicability.