Abstract
This review is the result of a joint reflection carried out by researchers in the fields of robotics and automatic control on the one hand and neuroscience on the other, both trying to answer the same question: what are the functional bases of bipedal locomotion and how can they be controlled? The originality of this work is to synthesize the two approaches in order to take advantage of the knowledge concerning the adaptability and reactivity performances of humans and of the rich tools and formal concepts available in biped robotics. Indeed, we claim that the theoretical framework of robotics can enhance our understanding of human postural control by formally expressing the experimental concepts used in neuroscience. Conversely, biological knowledge of human posture and gait can inspire biped robot design and control. Therefore, both neuroscientists and roboticists should find useful information in this paper.
Similar content being viewed by others
References
Abbs JH, Cole KJ (1987) Neural mechanisms of motor equivalence and goal achievement. In: Wise S.P. (ed) Higher brain functions. Recent explorations of the brains’s emergent properties. Wiley, New York, pp 15–43
Allgower F, Badgwell TA, Qion JS, Rawlings JB, Wright SJ (1999) Nonlinear predictive control and moving horizon estimation. an introduction overview. In: Proceedings of the European Control Conference (ECC), Karlsruhe, Germany, pp 392–449
Asano F, Luo Z, Yamakita M (2004) Some extensions of passive walking formula to active biped robots. In: IEEE International Conference on Robotics & Automation. New Orleans, April 2004 pp 3797–3802
Assaiante C, Amblard B (1993) Ontogenesis of head stabilization in space during locomotion in children: influence of visual cues. Exp Brain Res 93:499–515
Assaiante C, Amblard B (1995) An ontogenetic model for the sensorimotor organization of balance control in humans. Human Mov Sci 14:13–43
Assaiante C, Thomachot B, Aurenty R (1993) Hip stabilization and lateral balance control in toddlers during the first four months of autonomous walking. NeuroReport 4(7):875–878
Assaiante C, Thomachot B, Aurenty R, Amblard B (1998) Organization of lateral balance control in toddlers during the first year of autonomous walking. J Motor Behav 30(2):114–129
Aubin JP (1991) Viability theory. Birkhäuser
Azevedo C, Amblard B, Espiau B, Assaiante C (2004) A synthesis of bipedal locomotion in human and robots. Technical Report 5450, INRIA, December 2004
Azevedo C, Andreff N, Arias S (2004) Bipedal walking from gait design to experimental analysis. Mechatronics 14(6):639–665
Azevedo C, Héliot R (2005) Rehabilitation of functional posture and walking: coordination of healthy and impaired limbs. J Automatic Control 15-Suppl:11–15
Azevedo C, Poignet P, Espiau B (2004) Artificial locomotion control: from human to robots. Robot Auton Syst 47(4):203–223
Bernstein NA (1967) The coordination and regulation of movement. Pergamon Press, New York
Berthoz A (1991) Reference frames for the perception and control of movement. In: Paillard J (ed) Brain and space. Oxford University Press, Oxford
Bianchi L, Angelini D, Lacquaniti F (1998) Individual characteristics of human walking mechanics. Pflugers Arch. 436:343–356
Blickhan R (1989) The spring-mass model for running and hopping. J Biomech 22:1217–1227
Bourgeot J-M, Cislo N, Espiau B (2002) Path-planning and tracking in a 3D complex environment for an anthropomorphic biped robot. In: Proceedings of the 2002 IEEE international conference on intelligent robots and systems, vol 3, EPFL, Lausanne, Suisse, October 2002, pp 2509–2514
Brooks VB (1986) The neural basis of motor control. Oxford University Press, Oxford
Cavagna GA, Franzetti P, Fuchimoto T (1983) The mechanics of walking in children. J Physiol 343:323–339
Cavagna GA, Heglund NC, Taylor CR (1977) Mechanical work in terrestrial locomotion: two basic mechanisms for minimizing energy expenditure. Am J Physiol 233:243–261
Cavagna GA, Thys H, Zamboni A (1976) The sources of external work in level walking and running. J Physiol 262:639–657
Chareyron S, Wieber PB (2005a) Complete stability analysis of a control law for walking robots with non-permanent contacts. In: CLAWAR 2005 8th international conference on climbing and walking robots, London, September 2005a
Chareyron S, Wieber PB (2005b) Position and force control of nonsmooth lagrangian dynamical systems without friction. In: Lothar Thiele Manfred Morari, (ed) Lecture notes in Computer Science, vol 3414. Springer-Verlag GmbH, Berlin Heidelberg New York, p 215.
Chaumette F (1998) Potential problems of stability and convergence in image-based and position-based visual servoing. In: Kriegman D, Hager G, Morse AS (eds) The Confluence of vision and control, LNCIS Series, vol. 237. Springer, Berlin Heidelberg New York
Chessé S, Bessonnet G (2001) Optimal dynamics of constrained multibody systems. Application to bipedal walking system synthesis. In: IEEE International Conference on Robotics & Automation, New Orleans
Chevallereau C, Grizzle JW, Moog CH (2004) Nonlinear control of mechanical systems with one degree of actuation. In: IEEE International Conference on Robotics & Automation, New Orleans
Clément G, Gurfinkel VS, Lestienne F, Lipshits MI, Popov KE (1984) Adaptation of postural control to weightlessness. Exp Brain Res 57:61–72
Collins SH, Wisse M, Ruina A (2001) A three-dimensional passive dynamic walking robot with two legs and knees. Int J Robot Res 20(7):607–615
Crenna P, Frigo C, Massion J, Pedotti A (1987) Forward and backward axial synergies in man. Exp Brain Res 65:538–548
Desmurget M, Grafton S (2000) Forward modelling allows feedback control for fast reaching movements. Trends Cogn Sci 4(11):423–431
Dietz V (2003) Spinal cord pattern generators for locomotion. Clin Neurophysiol 114:1379–1389
Donelan JM, Kram R, Kuo AD (2001) Mechanical and metabolic determinants of the preferred step width in human walking. Proc R Soc Lond B Biol Sci 268:1985–1992
Droulez J, Berthoz A (1986) Servo-controlled (conservative) versus topological (projective) mode of sensory motor control. In: Brandt T (ed) Disoder and Posture and gait Elsevier Amsterdam, pp. 83–97
Duysens J, Tax AAM, Nawijn S, Berger W, Prokop T, Altenmuller E (1995) Gating of sensation and evoked potentials following foot stimulation during human gait. Exp Brain Res 105(3):423–431
Duysens J, Van de Crommert HWAA (1998). Neural control of locomotion; the central pattern generator from cats to humans. Gait Posture 7:131–141
Endo G, Morimoto J, Nakanishi J, Cheng G (2004) An empirical exploration of a neural control oscillator for biped locomotion control. In: IEEE international conference on robotics & automation, New Orleans, pp. 3036–3042
Espiau B, Chaumette F, Rives P (1992) A new approach to visual servoing in robotics. In: IEEE Trans Robot Autom 8(3):313–326
Flanagan JR, Wing AM (1997) The role of internal models in motion planning and control: evidence from grip force adjustments during movements of hand-held loads. J Neurosci 17(4):1519–1528
Forssberg H, Johnels B, Steg G (1984) Is parkinsonian gait caused by a regression to an immature walking pattern? Adv Neurol 40:375–379
Garcia CE, Prett DM, Morari M (1989) Model predictive control: theory and practice – a survey, vol 25. Automatica
Gatev P, Thomas T, Kepple S, Hallett M (1999) Feedforward ankle strategy of balance during quiet stance in adults. J Physiol (Lond) 514:915–928
Goswami A, Thuilot B, Espiau B (1998) A study of the passive gait of a compass-like biped robot: symmetry and chaos. Int J Robot Res 17(12):1282–1301
Gottschall JS, Kram R (2003) Energy cost and muscular activity required for propulsion during walking. J Appl Physiol 94(5):1766–1772
Gresty MA, Bronstein AM (1992) Visually controlled spatial stabilisation of the human head: compensation for the eye’s limited ability to roll. Neurosci Lett 140:63–66
Grillner S (1986) Interaction between sensory signals and the central networks controlling locomotion in lamprey, dogfish and cat. In: Grillner S, Stein PSG, Stuart DG, Forssberg F, Herman RM (eds) Wenner Gren international symposium seriesWenner Gren international symposium series vol 45. Macmillan, London
Gurfinkel VS, Levick YS (1991) Perceptual and automatic aspects of the postural body scheme. In: Paillard J (ed) Brain and space, chap 10. Oxford University Press, Oxford
Haruno M, Wolpert DM, Kawato M (2001) Mosaic model for sensorimotor learning and control. Neural Comput
Haruno M, Wolpert DM, Kawato M (2003) Hierarchical mosaic for movement generation. Int Congress Ser 1250, 575– 590
Héliot R, Azevedo C, Espiau B, David D (2005) Early detection of postural modifications and motion monitoring using micro attitude sensors. In: Adaptive motion in animals and machines AMAM conference, Ilmenau, Germany, October 2005
Herr H, Langman N (1997) Optimization of human-powered elastic mechanisms for endurance amplification. J Int Soc Struct Multidisciplin Optimiz 13:65–67
Hill AV (1938) The heat of shortening and the dynamic constants in muscle. Proc R Soc London Ser B 126:136–195
Horak FB, MacPherson JM (1996) Postural orientation and equilibrium. In: Rowell LB, Shepherd JT (eds) Handbook of physiology. Sation 12, Excercise; regulation and integration of multiple systems. Oxford University Press, New York, pp 255– 292
Horak FB, Nashner LM (1986) Central programming of postural movements: adaptation to altered support-surface configurations. J Physiol (Lond) 55:1369–1381
Hu J, Pratt J, Chew C, Herr H, Pratt G (1999) Virtual model based adaptive dynamic control of a biped walking robot. Int J Artif Intell Tools 8:337–348
Hurmuzlu Y, Génot F, Brogliato B (2001) Modelling, stability and control of biped robots – a general framework. Technical Report 4290, INRIA Research Report
Huxley AF (1957) Muscle structure and theories of contraction. Progress Biophys Biophys Chem 7:255–318
Imamizu H, Kuroda T, Miyauchi S, Yoshioka T, Kawato M (2003) Modular organization of internal models of tools in the human cerebellum. Proc Natl Acad Sci USA 100:5461–5466
Jeannerod M (1988) The neural and behavioral organization of goal-directed movements. Clarendon press, Oxford
Kajita S, Yokoi K, Saigo M, Tanie K (2001) Balancing a humanoid robot using backdrive concerned torque control and direct angular momentum feedback. In: IEEE International Conference on Robotics & Automation, Seoul, Korea, May 2001
Kawato M (1999) Internal models for motor control and trajectory planning. Curr Posit Neurobiol 9(6):718–727
Kawato M, Furukawa K, Suzuki R (1987) A hierarchical neural-network model for control and learning of voluntary movement. Biol Cybern, 57:169–185
Kim J, Oh J (2004) Walking control of the humanoid control platform khr-1 based on torque feedback control. In: IEEE international conference on robotics & automation, New Orleans, April 2004, pp 623–628
Krishnamoorthy V (2003) Muscle synergies during standing. PhD Thesis, College of health and Human Development. Pennsylvania State University
Lacquaniti F, Ivanenko YP, Zago M (2002) Kinematic control of walking. Arch Ital Biol 140:263–272
Lestienne F, Gurfinkel VS (1988) Postural control in weightlessness: a dual process underlying adaptation to an unusual environment. TINS 11:359–363
Lydoire F, Poignet P (2003) Nonlinear predictive control using constraint satisfaction. In: 2nd International Workshop on Global Constrained Optimization and Constraint Satisfaction (COCOS)
Lydoire F, Poignet P, Azevedo C, Espiau B (2002) Three-dimensional paramaterized gaits for biped walking. In: Proceedings of the 5th international conference on climbing and walking Robots (CLAWAR), Paris, pp 749–757
Massion J (1992) Movement, posture and equilibrium: Interaction and coordination. Prog in Neurobio 38:35–56
Matsuoka K (1985) Sustained oscillations generated by mutually inhibiting neurons with adaptation. Biol Cybern 52:345– 353
McGeer T (1990) Passive dynamic walking. Int J Robot Res 9(2):62–82
McMahon T, Cheng G (1990) The mechanism of running: how does stiffness couple with speed? J Biomech 23:657
Mittelstaedt H, Fricke E (1988) The relative effect of saccular and somatosensory information on spatial perception and control. Adv Oto-Rhino-Laryngol 42:24–30
Nadeau S, Amblard B, Mesure S, Bourbonnais D (2003) Head and trunk stabilization strategies during forward and backward walking in healthy adults. Gait Posture 18(3):134–142
Nashner LM (1977) Fixed patterns of rapid postural responses among leg muscles during stance. Exp Brain Res 30:13–24
Newell L, Emmerik R (1989) The acquisition of coordination : a preliminary analysis of learning to write. Human Mov Sci 8:17–32
Nubar Y, Contini R (1961) A minimal principle in biomechanics. Bull Math Biophys 23:377–391
Paillard J (1971) Les determinants moteurs de l’organisation de l’espace. Cahiers Psychol 14:261–316
Paillard J (1996) Fast and slow feedback loops for the visual correction of spatial errors in a pointing task: a reappraisal. Can. J Physiol Pharmacol 74:401–17
Pérennou D, Amblard B (2004) Man against gravity : the control of orientation and that of stabilisation are dissociated. Exp Brain Res (in press)
Pfeiffer F, Glocker C (1996) Multibody dynamics with unilateral contacts. Wiley-Interscience Publication, Wiley, New York
Prochazka A (1989) Sensorymotor gain control: a basic strategy of motor systems? Prog Neurobiol 33:281–307
Richalet J, Rault A, Testud JL, Papon J (1978) Model predictive heuristic control: applications to industrial processes. Automatica 14(2):413–428
Roberts TJ (2002) The integrated function of muscles and tendons during locomotion. Comp Biochem Physiol A Mol Integr Physiol 133:1087–1099
Rozendal RH (1986) Biomechanics of standing and walking. In: Bles W, Brandt Th (eds). Elsevier, Amsterdam, New York
Samson C, Le Borgne M, Espiau B (1991) Robot control: the task function approach. Oxford University Press
Sardain P, Rostami M, Bessonnet G (1997) An Anthropomorphic biped robot: dynamic concepts and technological design. IEEE Trans Syst Man Cybern 28(6):823–838
Scholz JP, Schöner G (1999) The uncontrolled manifold concept : identifying control variables for a functional task. Exp Brain Res pp 289–306
Taga G (1998) A model of the neuro-musculo-skeletal system for anticipatory adjustment of human locomotion during obstacle avoidance. Biol Cybern 78(1):9–17
Taga G, Yamaguchi Y, Shimizu H (1991) Self-organized control of bipedal locomotion by neural oscillators in unpredictable environment. Biol Cybern 65(3):147–159
Vaughan CL (2003) Theories of bipedal walking: an odyssey. J Biomech 36:513–523
Vukobratović M, Borovav B, Surla D, Stokić D (1990) Biped Locomotion: dynamics, stability, control and application. Springer-Verlag, London, Great Britain
Westervelt ER, Buche G, Grizzle JW (2004) Inducing dynamically stable walking in an underactuated planar biped. In IEEE International Conference on Rob. & Autom., New Orleans, April 2004, pp 4234–4239
Wieber PB (2000) Constrained dynamics and parametrized control in biped walking. In: Proceedings of the international symposium on mathematical theory of networks and systems
Wieber PB (2002) On the stability of walking systems. In: Proceedings of the international workshop on humanoid and human friendly robotics
Wieber PB, Chevallereau C (2004) Online adaptation of reference trajectories for the control of walking systems. (Submitted)
Wieber PB (2000) Modélisation et Commande d’un Robot marcheur Anthropomorphe. PhD Thesis-cole Nationale Supérieure des Mines de Paris
Williamson M (1998) Neural control of rythmic arm movements. Neural Netw 11(7–8):1379–1394
Wolpert DM, Miall C, Kawato M (1998) Internal models in the cerebellum. Trends Cogn Sci 9:338–347
Zajac FE, Neptune RR, Kautz SA (2002) Biomechanics and muscle coordination of human walking. part i: introduction to concepts, power transfer, dynamics and simulations. Gait Posture 16:215–232
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Azevedo, C., Espiau, B., Amblard, B. et al. Bipedal locomotion: toward unified concepts in robotics and neuroscience. Biol Cybern 96, 209–228 (2007). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00422-006-0118-0
Received:
Accepted:
Published:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00422-006-0118-0