Reachability Enhancement of SURENA Mini Humanoid Robot Using Model Predictive Control Path Planning in a Hierarchical Stack of Tasks

In this paper, a whole body motion generation method is introduced that enables the robot to step towards a target to increase its reachable area whenever needed. The method used for generating the stepping motion is based on model predictive control (MPC), a very efficient path planning method that ensures the stability during the walk motion. Several tasks such as position of center of mass, position of the feet and the reaching hand motion are taken into account. The results show that the introduced method is useful for enabling the robot to perform tasks which are not feasible without extending the support polygon.