Path-planning and tracking in a 3D complex environment for an anthropomorphic biped robot

Biped robots have specific dynamical constraints and stability problems which reduce significantly their motion range. In these conditions, motion planning used for mobile robots cannot be applied to biped robots. In this paper, the path planning problem is seen as finding a sequence of footholds in a 3D environment, keeping robot stability, motion continuity and working within the structural constraints of the biped. The designed path planner contains two parts : The first one determines a reference path which maximises success rate in view of biped capabilities. This reference track is computed by the well know A* search in the graphs algorithm. The second part of the path planner is a path tracking algorithm which makes the robot follow the reference track. Simulation results concern the anthropomorphic 15 degrees of freedom robot BIP2000.