Force based motion control of the walking machine ALDURO using exact linearization methods

Hydraulically driven walking machines like ALDURO, which is being developed at the University of Duisburg, are typical mechatronic systems as they can be driven only by means of sensor information and controllers. In this paper a force based motion control concept is presented to control both the platform movement and the foot-ground forces of the ALDURO. Due to strong kinematic and dynamic nonlinearities pure linear controllers do not provide satisfactory results. Therefore, nonlinear control concepts requiring a detailed mathematical model have to be applied. The overall control structure presented is based on an exact input/output linearization using decentralized force controllers. Some simulation results are shown to demonstrate the function of the control concept presented