Biped Bootcamp: Lessons on a 3-Link and 5-Link Biped

Biped Robotics is a field within robotics that studies two-legged locomotion of robots. Applications in this field include search and rescue, rehabilitation exoskeletons, delivery services, automation of manufacturing processes, and more. While much research has been done in this field to control a vast array of complex biped robots, the novice researcher must first understand the fundamentals of how to model and control a simple biped robot before they can hope to move on to the more advanced topics.

The purpose of this project is to develop a series of lesson plans and videos that will provide an introduction to the field of biped robotics by explaining how to model and control a simple three-link biped robot and a five-link biped.

Below are gifs of the three- and five-link bipeds walking using the controllers that I teach about in my technical documents.

Current Progress

To date I have:

• written a 100-page technical document that covers the fundamentals of modeling a three-link biped robot in Matlab

• drafted two self-teaching PowerPoints that cover matrix transformations and how they apply to this project

• gave several lab presentations to the Biped Robotics Lab covering significant learning objectives of the Biped Bootcamp

• taught five undergraduate students using my 100-page technical document during the Winter 2022 semester

Future Work

I am working on:

• writing a technical document to teach how to simulate and control a five-link biped using Matlab and Simulink

• draft a series of videos and lesson plans to accompany the technical documents