Haptic Feedback Applied to Pneumatic Walking

This paper presents a proposed control method for controlling the foot positions of two robotic legs through direct operator inputs with haptic feedback. The robot consists of two 3-DoF legs driven by pneumatic actuators. A demonstration of the controller shows the tracking performance enhancements of the proposed force-based position controller over a simple differential pressure gain scheduler-based position controller. The proposed controller incorporates pressure feedback to create supplementary force control. Foot position tracking remains within 10% of the commanded reference position, even through the sharp disparities of loading conditions as the actuators are either lifting the weight of the legs or supporting the weight of the robot itself. An operator gives direct foot position commands to the controller through two PHANToM haptic devices. Bilateral teleoperation of the system provides directional force feedback to the operator as a function of foot position error. The proposed controller also decreases the ambient and false forces reflected to the operator while moving the legs through gait cycles.