Motion generation for a tumbling robot using a general contact model

The goal of this research was to develop a general approach for the generation of motions for robots that make and break contact with the ground, such as hopping, walking, or tumbling robots. We first develop a general contact model and show how to smooth the forces arising from this contact to make them C/sup 1/ functions of the state. This is essential for our motion generation algorithm, which relies on the solution of an optimal control problem for different phases of the motion. We apply our approach to the generation of motion primitives to a simple experimental robot that is capable of producing hand-stands and tumbling.