Realization by Biped Leg-wheeled Robot of Biped Walking and Wheel-driven Locomotion

Biped walking is easily adaptable to rough terrain such as stairs and stony paths, but the walk speed and energy efficiency on the flat ground is not so effective compared with wheeled locomotion. In this paper, we propose a biped robot to be able to walk or wheel according to the ground conditions. For wheeled locomotion, WS-2 (Waseda Shoes -No. 2) is developed which is composed of a DC motor, a spherical caster and two rubber pads on each foot. WS-2 is attached to the feet of WL-16 (Waseda Leg -No. 16) that is the world´s first biped-walking robot capable of carrying a human. Also, a path planning for wheeled locomotion is presented. Through hardware experiments, the effectiveness of this foot module is confirmed.