The development of pneumatic stiffness-adjustable foot for bipedal robot

The most common problem for traditional bipedal robots walking on uneven terrain is that the contact area between the soles and ground might reduce because of rigid foot soles, which will force the pose been changed and eventually cause the robots to fall. The pneumatic stiffness-adjustable foot is designed to make the walking more adaptive on uneven terrain. This foot contains a soft sole integrating new supporting airbag units underneath. The stiffness of the airbag units can be changed by internal air pressure and all the units are controlled separately. In the experiment, the interferences are added during the adaptability tests to simulate the uneven terrain and the experimental data shows that the adaptability of the foot can be improved by control of the airbag units' internal pressure.