Exoskeleton development to benefit from bipedel robot research

Experts with backgrounds in robotics, mathematics and cognitive sciences will study human locomotion as exactly as possible and transfer this onto technical equipment with the assistance of new mathematical processes and algorithms.

The project brings together scientists from Germany, France, Israel, Italy and the Netherlands who will be coordinated by Prof Dr Katja Mombaur of Heidelberg University.

‘One of the major challenges on the way is to enable robots to move on two legs in different situations, without an accident – in spite of unknown terrain and also with possible disturbances,’ said Prof Mombaur, who heads the working group Optimisation in Robotics and Biomechanics at Heidelberg University’s Interdisciplinary Center for Scientific Computing (IWR).

In the KoroiBot project the researchers will study the way humans walk on stairs and slopes, on soft and slippery ground and over beams and seesaws, to create their mathematical models.

Besides developing new optimisation and learning processes for walking on two legs, they aim to implement this in practice with existing robots. In addition, the research results are to flow into planning new design principles for the next generation of robots.