Biorobotic foot model applied to BIPMAN robot

In this paper, we intend to better understand the role of the foot during a walking cycle. A biomechanical analysis of the foot is presented in order to enhance its characteristics and its evolution during the stance phase. It leads to the definition of sub-phases where the foot roles are displayed. According to this analysis, we propose a foot model able, to reproduce the main functions and present how this model has been physically designed in BIPMAN's project. The main originality of this structure is that it is entirely pneumatic actuated which provide a good damping and a soft behaviour in regard with impacts. The hardware (mechanic and electronic) is associated to the software (control design) to make the foot of BIPMAN behave as close as possible to a real foot. We briefly recall the general control architecture we use to make the human-like structure move, before presenting simulations of a whole walking cycle. A special attention is turned to the behaviour of the ankle and of the metatarsal joints.