Advancements in Humanoid Robots: A Comprehensive Review and Future Prospects

This paper provides a comprehensive review of the current status, advancements, and future prospects of humanoid robots, highlighting their significance in driving the evolution of next-generation industries. By analyzing various research endeavors and key technologies, encompassing ontology structure,control and decision-making, and perception and interaction, a holistic overview of the current state of humanoid robot research is presented. Furthermore, emerging challenges in the field are identified, emphasizing the necessity for a deeper understanding of biological motion mechanisms, improved structural design,enhanced material applications, advanced drive and control methods, and efficient energy utilization. The integration of bionics, brain-inspired intelligence, mechanics, and control is underscored as a promising direction for the development of advanced humanoid robotic systems. This paper serves as an invaluable resource, offering insightful guidance to researchers in the field,while contributing to the ongoing evolution and potential of humanoid robots across diverse domains.

Design and Kinematic Analysis of a Novel Humanoid Robot Eye Using Pneumatic Artificial Muscles

This paper proposed a novel humanoid robot eye, which is driven by six Pneumatic Artificial Muscles （PAMs） and rotates with 3 Degree of Freedom （DOF）. The design of the mechanism and motion type of the robot eye are inspired by that of human eyes. The model of humanoid robot eye is established as a parallel mechanism, and the inverse-kinematic problem of this flexible tendons driving parallel system is solved by the analytical geometry method. As an extension, the simulation result for saccadic movement is presented under three conditions. The design and kinematic analysis of the prototype could be a sig- nificant step towards the goal of building an autonomous humanoid robot eye with the movement and especially the visual functions similar to that of human.

Analysis and use of fuzzy intelligent technique for navigation of humanoid robot in obstacle prone zone

With the increasing use of humanoid robots in several sectors of industrial automation and manufacturing, navigation and path planning of humanoids has emerged as one of the most promising area of research. In this paper, a navigational controller has been developed for a humanoid by using fuzzy logic as an intelligent algorithm for avoiding the obstacles present in the environment and reach the desired target position safely. Here, the controller has been designed by careful consideration of the navigational parameters by the help of fuzzy rules. The sensory information regarding obstacle distances and bearing angle towards the target are considered as inputs to the controller and necessary velocities for avoiding the obstacles are obtained as outputs. The working of the controller has been tested on a NAO humanoid robot in V-REP simulation platform. To validate the simulation results, an experimental platform has been designed under laboratory conditions, and experimental analysis has been performed.Finally, the results obtained from both the environments are compared against each other with a good agreement between them.

Dynamics Modeling and Robust Trajectory Tracking Control for a Class of Hybrid Humanoid Arm Based on Neural Network

In order to solve the problem of trajectory tracking for a class of novel serial-parallel hybrid humanoid arm（HHA）, which has parameters uncertainty, frictions, disturbance, abrasion and pulse forces derived from motors, a multistep dynamics modeling strategy is proposed and a robust controller based on neural network（NN）-adaptive algorithm is designed. At the first step of dynamics modeling, the dynamics model of the reduced HHA is established by Lagrange method. At the second step of dynamics modeling, the parameter uncertain part resulting mainly from the idealization of the HHA is learned by adaptive algorithm. In the trajectory tracking controller, the radial basis function（RBF） NN, whose optimal weights are learned online by adaptive algorithm, is used to learn the upper limit function of the total uncertainties including frictions, disturbances, abrasion and pulse forces. To a great extent, the conservatism of this robust trajectory tracking controller is reduced, and by this controller the HHA can impersonate mostly human actions. The proof and simulation results testify the validity of the adaptive strategy for parameter learning and the neural network-adaptive strategy for the trajectory tracking control.

Classification of Sitting States for the Humanoid Robot SJTU-HR1

The classification of sitting issues is investigated since detailed state classification for humanoid robots plays a key role in the practical application of humanoid robots, particularly for the humanoid robots doing complicated tasks. This paper presents the concept, the characteristics tree, and the prototype of the humanoid robot SJTU-HR1. The basic states lbr humanoid robots are proposed, including lying, sitting, standing, and handstanding. Moreover, the sitting states are classified into several states from the viewpoint of topology. The Gy （generalized function） set theory is applied to achieve the kinematic characteristics of the interested end-effectors of the humanoid robot SJTU-HR1. Finally, the results indicate that a large number of the sitting states can be represented by the meaningful notations systematically. Furthermore, the one-to-one correspondence between the state and kinematic characteristics of the interested end-effectors of the SJTU-HR 1 leads to deeper insight into the capabilities of the humanoid robot SJTU-HR1.

Optimal sagittal gait with ZMP stability during complete walking cycle for humanoid robots

A parametric method to generate low energy gait for both single and double support phases with zero moment point（ZMP） stability is presented. The ZMP stability condition is expressed as a limit to the actuating torque of the support ankle, and the inverse dynamics of both walking phases is investigated. A parametric optimization method is implemented which approximates joint trajectories by cubic spline functions connected at uniformly distributed time knots and makes optimization parameters only involve finite discrete states describing key postures. Thus, the gait optimization is transformed into an ordinary constrained nonlinear programming problem. The effectiveness of the method is verified through numerical simulations conducted on the humanoid robot THBIP-I model.

Cyber-Physical-Social System Between a Humanoid Robot and a Virtual Human Through a Shared Platform for Adaptive Agent Ecology

Two artificial agents(a humanoid robot and a virtual human) are enriched with various similar intelligence,autonomy, functionalities and interaction modalities. The agents are integrated in the form of a cyber-physical-social system(CPSS) through a shared communication platform to create a social ecology. In the ecology, the agents collaborate(assist each other) to perform a real-world task(search for a hidden object)for the benefits of humans. A robot-virtual human bilateral trust model is derived and a real-time trust measurement method is developed. The role of taking initiative in the collaboration is switched between the agents following a finite state machine model triggered by bilateral trust, which results in a mixedinitiative collaboration. A scheme is developed to evaluate the performance of the agents in the ecology through the CPSS.The results show that the robot and the virtual human perform satisfactorily in the collaboration through the CPSS. The results thus prove the effectiveness of the real-world ecology between artificial agents of heterogeneous realities through a shared platform based on trust-triggered mixed-initiatives. The results can help develop adaptive social ecology comprising intelligent agents of heterogeneous realities to assist humans in various tasks through collaboration between the agents in the form of a CPSS.

Dynamically Adapt to Uneven Terrain Walking Control for Humanoid Robot

Dynamically adapt to uneven ground locomotion is a crucial ability for humanoid robots utilized in human environments.However,because of the effect of current pattern generation method,adapting to unknown rough ground is limited.Moreover,to maintain large support region by four-point contact during the landing phase is usually a key problem.In order to solve these problems,a landing phase control and online pattern generation in three dimensional environments is proposed.On the basis of robot-environment non-planar interactive modes,a method of landing control based on optimal support region is put forward to realize stable four-point contact by flexible foot,and a controller is employed to adapt to the changes of ground without using prior knowledge.Furthermore,an adaptable foothold planning is put forward to the online pattern generation considering walking speed,uneven terrain,and the effect of lateral movement to the locomotion stability.Finally,the effectiveness of landing control and online pattern generation is demonstrated by dynamic simulations and real robot walking experiments on outdoor uneven ground.The results indicate that the robot kept its balance even though the ground is unknown and irregular.The proposed methods lay a foundation for studies of humanoid robots performing tasks in complex environments.

Clock-turning gait synthesis for humanoid robots

Turning gait is a basic motion for humanoid robots. This paper presents a method for humanoid tuming, i.e. clock-turning. The objective of clock-turning is to change robot direction at a stationary spot. The clock-turning planning consists of four steps： ankle trajectory generation, hip trajectory generation, knee trajectory generation, and inverse kinematics calculation. Our proposed method is based on a typical humanoid structure with 12 DOFs （degrees of freedom）. The final output of clock-turning planning is 12 reference trajectories, which are used to control a humanoid robot with 12 DOFs. ZMP （zero moment point） is used as stability criterion for the planning. Simulation experiments are conducted to verify the effectiveness of our proposed clock-turuing method.

Motion Planning of Humanoid Robot for Obstacle Negotiation

The motion planning for obstacle negotiation by humanoid robot BHR-2 through stepping over or stepping on/off the wide and flat obstacle at known locations is presented. In the trajectory generation method, first the constraints of the foot motion parameters which include obstacle dimensions and the distance of obstacle from the humanoid robot is formulated. By varying the values of the constraint parameters, different types of foot motion for different obstacles can be produced. In this method, first the foot trajectory is generated, and then the waist trajectory is computed by using cubic spline interpolation without first calculating the zero moment point （ZMP） trajectory . The dynamic stability during the execution of stepping over and stepping on/off trajectories are ensured by incorporating the ZMP criterion. The effectiveness of the proposed method is confirmed by simulations and experiments on humanoid robot BHR-2.

Emotional Gait Generation for a Humanoid Robot

In this paper, an emotional mathematical model and affective state probability description space of a humanoid robot are set up on the basis of psycho-dynamics＇ psychological energy and affective energy conservation law. The emotional state transferring process and hidden Markov chain algorithm of stimulating transition process are then studied. The simulation results show that the mathematical model is applicable to the authentic affective state change rule of human beings. Finally, the gait generation experiment results of control signal and electric current tracking wave-form are presented to demonstrate the validity of the proposed mathematical model.

Recommended Design and Direction of Development for Humanoid Nursing Robots Perspective from Nursing Researchers

The purpose of this article is to describe recommendations towards the design and direction of development for Humanoid Nursing Robots (HNRs) from the standpoint of researchers of nursing care practice. Efforts to introduce robot technologies in nursing practice and to use them in elderly and high-tech healthcare environments have begun in developed countries like Japan. Companies are developing various types of robots, although their types and functionalities continue to require a clear identification and definition. Regardless, robot developments for health care purposes are progressing well to meet universal technological demands. While human caring has been a human-to-human relationship, in a nonhuman-to-human relationship in the case of HNRs, it is essential to consider ethical concerns and human safety. If HNRs are to support patients directly, they must be required to have the same level of comprehensive judgment ability and responsiveness as that of human nurses. This includes abilities to genuinely observe, judge, rapidly respond, and conduct human caring practice emphasizing individuality. If HNRs support patients independently, abilities which are much like those of humans will be required of them in addition to the appropriate intelligence and skillfulness to do so. A low level robot nurse exerts work that should be called non-nursing or as a medical aid assistant no matter who thinks and what these technologies can do. Similarly, a higher level HNR with higher level artificial intelligence is expected to exceed the capabilities of human beings. As such, current discourse and debate also include the concern that HNRs may now become one’s superior or rather that the HNR is a subordinate thereby requiring human management.

Design of 3D-printed Cable Driven Humanoid Hand Based on Bidirectional Elastomeric Passive Transmission

Motion control of the human hand is the most complex part of the human body.It has always been a challenge for a good balance between the cost,weight,responding speed,grasping force,finger extension,and dexterity of prosthetic hand.To solve these issues,a 3D-printed cable driven humanoid hand based on bidirectional elastomeric passive transmission(BEPT)is designed in this paper.A semi-static model of BEPT is investigated based on energy conservation law to analyze the mechanical properties of BEPT and a dynamical simulation of finger grasping is conducted.For a good imitation of human hand and an excellent grasping performance,specific BEPT is selected according to human finger grasping experiments.The advantage of BEPT based humanoid hand is that a good balance between the price and performance of the humanoid hand is achieved.Experiments proved that the designed prosthetic hand’s single fingertip force can reach 33 N and the fastest fingertip grasping speed realized 0.6 s/180°.It also has a good force compliance effect with only 430g’s weight.It can not only grab fragile objects like raw eggs and paper cup,but also achieve strong grasping force to damage metal cans.This humanoid hand has considerable application prospects in artificial prosthesis,human-computer interaction,and robot operation.

Resonance Suppression Strategy for Humanoid Robot Arm

To address the problem of resonance in the control of a robot arm,a resonance suppression strategy is proposed for a single-joint humanoid robot arm based on the proportionalresonant(PR)controller.First,an arm joint model of the humanoid robot is established.Then the influence of resonance frequency on the performance of the control system with the robot arm is analyzed.The voltage fluctuation of the drive motor caused by the changes in arm motion is recognized as the disturbance of the current loop.The PR controller has the characteristic of disturbance rejection at a specific frequency.The output fluctuation of the driving system caused by the change of arm motion state at the resonance frequency is suppressed.Therefore the output current of the inverter will not be affected by the vibration of the arm at the resonance frequency.Finally,the control system is verified by MATLAB/Simulink simulation.The simulation results demonstrate that the control strategy for the humanoid robot arm based on the PR controller can suppress the resonance of the arm effectively,improving the dynamic performance and system stability.

The Optimization of Humanoid Robot’s Dialog in Improving Communication between Humanoid Robot and Older Adults

Older adults with dementia are increasing in Japan. Because of this, “communication robots” are being introduced into nursing settings to substitute for the shortage of nurses and other care workers. Our research group is currently developing a humanoid nursing robot with caring function (HNR), specifically for the functional and practical use of older adults with dementia. The purpose of this study was to clarify improvement points of the current function of humanoid robot’s (Pepper) (SoftBank Robotics) dialog pattern for improving optimal communication between humanoid robot and older adults. Dialog programs were installed in the humanoid robot Pepper, including the application program Care Prevention Gymnastics Exercises for Pepper (Pepper-CPGE) that was made by Xing Company, Japan. Dialogues between older adults and Pepper-CPGE were recorded by video camera. Data from transcriptions of the conversations captured from video and from field notes were analyzed focusing on human-robot interaction. From the recorded scenes and conversations, the following were points to be improved: 1) Intonation of the words vocalized by Pepper-CPGE was different from that expected by the older adult resulted in inappropriate responses by the older adult;2) The timing between Pepper’s questions and the responses of the older adult were not timely and did not match (differences in the question-response time), which lead to confusion among the older adults;and 3) Other surroundings older adults were interested in the dialogue with Pepper-CPGE. However, Pepper-CPGE cannot communicate with multiple older adults. ImprovingPepper-CPGE’s ability to communicate with multiple older adults as an older adult’s dialogue with Pepper-CPGE can cause other older adults to also interact not only with the older adult that Pepper-CPGE is interacting with but also with Pepper-CPGE. This study shows that transactive relations among humanoid robots and older adults can be facilitated. Improving communication between humanoid robots and the older adults by optimizing a structured dialogue is needed to enhance appropriate engagement and participation. It is necessary to create a “Caring dialogue Database” for HNRs in order to know the patient/client and to share the aesthetic experiences of human-robot interactions. Also, it is important to develop a dialog pattern that enables humanoid robots to sympathize with older adults.

Novel Flexible Foot System for Humanoid Robot Adaptable to Uneven Ground

Humanoid robots can walk stably on flat ground, regular slopes, and stairs. However, because of their rigid and flat soles, adapting to unknown rough terrains is limited, moreover, to maintain large scale four-point contact for foot structures to keep balance is usually a key technical problem. In order to solve these problems, the control strategy and foot structures should be improved. In this paper, a novel flexible foot system is proposed. This system occupies 8 degrees of freedom （DOF）, and can obtain larger support region to keep in four-point contact with uneven terrains; Novel cable transmission technology is put forward to reduce complexity of traditional mechanism and control strategy, and variation of each DOF is mapped to cable displacement. Furthermore, kinematics of this new system and a global dynamic model based on contact-force feedback are analyzed. According to stability criterion and feedback sensor information, a method calculating the optimal attitude matrix of contact points and joint variables is introduced. Virtual prototyping models of a 30-DOF humanoid robot and rough terrain are established to simulate humanoid robot walking on uneven ground, and feasibility of this system adapted to uneven terrain and validity of its control strategy are verified. The proposed research enhances the capability of humanoid robots to adapt to large scale uneven ground, expands the application field of humanoid robots, and thus lays a foundation for studies of humanoid robots performing tasks in complex environments in place of humans.

RESEARCH ON THE DOF DISPOSITION AND MECHANISMS DESIGN OF HUMANOID ROBOT

The DOF of human being was analyzed in this paper. Three reasonable kinds of DOF disposition programs came up to design a humanoid robot and an optimal DOF disposition program was chosen according to configuration appearance, realizing the balance and torsion movement and analysis of torque of the humanoid. Three special mechanisms were designed so that the humanoid robot has some special function.

A selective attention-based contextual perception approach for a humanoid robot

A humanoid robot is always flooded by sensed information when sensing the environment, and it usually needs significant time to compute and process the sensed information. In this paper, a selective attention-based contextual perception approach was proposed for humanoid robots to sense the environment with high efficiency. First, the connotation of attention window （AW） is extended to make a more general and abstract definition of AW, and its four kinds of operations and state transformations are also discussed. Second, the attention control policies are described, which integrate intensionguided perceptual objects selection and distractor inhibition, and can deal with emergent issues. Distractor inhibition is used to filter unrelated information. Last, attention policies are viewed as the robot＇s perceptual modes, which can control and adjust the perception efficiency. The experimental results show that the presented approach can promote the perceptual efficiency significantly, and the perceptual cost can be effectively controlled through adopting different attention policies.

A novel compound biped locomotion algorithm for humanoid robots to realize biped walking

In this paper, a compound biped locomotion algorithm for a humanoid robot under development is presented. This paper is organized in two main parts. In the first part, it mainly focuses on the structural design for the humanoid. In the second part, the compound biped locomotion algorithm is presented based on the reference motion and reference Zero Moment Point （ZMP）. This novel algorithm includes calculation of the upper body motion and trajectory of the Center of Gravity （COG） of the robot. First, disturbances from the environment are eliminated by the compensational movement of the upper body; then based on the error between a reference ZMP and the real ZMP as well as the relation between ZMP and CoG, the CoG error is calculated, thus leading to the CoG trajectory. Then, the motion of the robot converges to its reference motion, generating stable biped walking. Because the calculation of upper body motion and trajectory of CoG both depend on the reference motion, they can work in parallel, thus providing double insurances against the robot＇s collapse. Finally, the algorithm is validated by different kinds of simulation experiments.

Similarity comprehensive evaluation of humanoid robot arm motion

A suitable comprehensive evaluation method for similarity comprehensive evaluation of humanoid motion(mainly to robotic arm) is proposed.For different robotic arms, a static comprehensive evaluation model is established by projection pursuit evaluation based on indexes of humanoid robot arm motion in robotics and ergonomics field. Based on projection pursuit evaluation with timing information entropy and time degrees, a dynamic comprehensive evaluation method is proposed by linear weighting to each time's static model's indexes weight according to timing weighted vectors. Through comparing similarity comprehensive evaluation result based on static and dynamic comprehensive evaluation model, the results show that similarity based on dynamic comprehensive evaluation model is high. By comparing reliability, similarity and dispersion of static and dynamic comprehensive evaluation models, the results show that dynamic comprehensive evaluation result has better accuracy, stability and lower dispersion, and the result is more reasonable and real. Therefore, the dynamic comprehensive evaluation method proposed in this paper is more suitable for similarity comprehensive evaluation of humanoid robot arm motion.