Mesh-based Methods for Quantifying and Improving Robustness of a Planar Biped Model to Random Push Disturbances

In this paper, we apply meshing tools to improve and analyze the performance of a 5-link planar biped model to random push perturbations. Creating a mesh for a 14-dimensional state space would typically be infeasible. However, as we show in this paper, low level controllers can restrict the reachable space of the system to a much lower dimensional manifold, which makes it possible to apply our tools to improve the performance. To validate the effectiveness of our tools in analyzing, quantifying and improving the performance of a system, we conduct simulations on two different sets of trajectories: one consisting of trajectories having only a single support phase, and a second set consisting of trajectories having both a double support as well as a single support phase.