BIO

Mariela is a sophomore at Florida State University majoring in computer science B.S with a minor in math. Her interests include math, technology, and robotics. She currently serves as the Women in Computer Science Mentee-Mentor program Co-Director. Mariela's career goals include applying her CS degree to a field that will make a positive change in the world and she hopes that she can encourage more young women to enter STEM fields.

Determining an Optimal Speed for a Bipedal Robot on Rough Terrain

Abstract

The purpose of this project is to determine the optimal speed at which a bipedal robot can navigate through rough terrain. This project is significant as we would like robots to travel where humans cannot such as through heavily wooded areas or the rough terrain of Mars. For this project, the optimal speed for a bipedal robot is the speed at which the robot is stable for over the largest range of slopes. To determine the optimal speed, we first created a compass gait biped using the dynamic equations of motion for a double pendulum and an additional equation to account for the instantaneous transfer of energy from swing to stance leg when the swing leg hits the ground. The equations were solved using Euler’s method for ordinary differential equations, and to account for the rough terrain the slope upon which the compass gait walked was increased by intervals of 0.0001. The compass gait was tested at different speeds, and the results were recorded as the number of increments to the initial slope until it collapsed from the terrain. From this experiment we found that speed 0.3929, is the most efficient speed, as it had the largest range of slopes at which it was stable.

Keywords: Robotics, STEM, Mathematics