Balance Recovery Based on Whole-Body Control Using Joint Torque Feedback for Quadrupedal Robots

In legged locomotion, the contact force between a robot and the ground plays a crucial role in balancing the robot. However, in quadrupedal robots, general whole-body controllers generate feed-forward force commands without considering the actual torque or force feedback. This paper presents a whole-body controller using the actual joint torque measured from a torque sensor, which enables the quadrupedal robot to demonstrate both dynamic locomotion and reaction to external disturbances. We compute external joint torque using the measured joint torque and the robot’s dynamics, and then we transform this to the moment of the center of mass (CoM). Using the computed CoM moment, the moment-based impedance controller distributes a feed-forward force corresponding to the desired moment of the CoM to stabilize the robot’s balance. Furthermore, to recover balance, the CoM motion is generated using capture point-based stepping control and zero moment point trajectory. The proposed whole-body controller was tested on a quadrupedal robot, named AiDIN-VI. Locomotive abilities on uneven terrains and slopes and in the presence of external disturbances are verified through experiments.