{rfName}
Be

Indexed in

License and use

Citations

6

Altmetrics

Grant support

This work was supported by the European Union's Horizon 2020 Research and Innovation Programs under Grant No. 779963 (EUROBENCH-FSTP2-WALKBENCH).

Analysis of institutional authors

Castano, Juan ACorresponding AuthorFernandez Talavera, NoeliaAuthorRodríguez Sánchez, Maria CristinaAuthor
Share
Publications
>
Article

Benchmarking Dynamic Balancing Controllers for Humanoid Robots

Publicated to:Robotics. 11 (5): 114- - 2022-10-01 11(5), DOI: 10.3390/robotics11050114

Authors: Castano, Juan A; Humphreys, Joseph; Mingo Hoffman, Enrico; Fernandez Talavera, Noelia; Rodriguez Sanchez, Maria Cristina; Zhou, Chengxu

Affiliations

King Juan Carlos Univ, Sch Expt Sci & Technol, Dept Appl Math Sci & Mat Engn & Elect Technol, Campus Mostoles, Madrid 28933, Spain - Author
PAL Robot, Barcelona 08005, Spain - Author
Univ Leeds, Fac Engn & Phys Sci, Sch Mech Engn, Leeds LS2 9JT, W Yorkshire, England - Author

Abstract

This paper presents a comparison study of three control design approaches for humanoid balancing based on the Center of Mass (CoM) stabilization and body posture adjustment. The comparison was carried out under controlled circumstances allowing other researchers to replicate and compare our results with their own. The feedback control from state space design is based on simple models and provides sufficient robustness to control complex and high Degrees of Freedom (DoFs) systems, such as humanoids. The implemented strategies allow compliant behavior of the robot in reaction to impulsive or periodical disturbances, resulting in a smooth and human-like response while considering constraints. In this respect, we implemented two balancing strategies to compensate for the CoM deviation. The first one uses the robot's capture point as a stability principle and the second one uses the Force/Torque sensors at the ankles to define a CoM reference that stabilizes the robot. In addition, was implemented a third strategy based on upper body orientation to absorb external disturbances and counterbalance them. Even though the balancing strategies are implemented independently, they can be merged to further increase balancing performance. The proposed strategies were previously applied on different humanoid bipedal platforms, however, their performance could not be properly benchmarked before. With this concern, this paper focuses on benchmarking in controlled scenarios to help the community in comparing different balance techniques. The key performance indicators (KPIs) used in our comparison are the CoM deviation, the settling time, the maximum measured orientation, passive gait measure, measured ankles torques, and reconstructed Center of Pressure (CoP). The benchmarking experiments were carried out in simulations and using the facility at Istituto Italiano di Tecnologia on the REEM-C humanoid robot provided by PAL robotics inside the EU H2020 project EUROBENCH framework.

Keywords
Bipedal stabilizationBody balanceModel predictive controlStabilizer

Quality index

Bibliometric impact. Analysis of the contribution and dissemination channel

The work has been published in the journal Robotics due to its progression and the good impact it has achieved in recent years, according to the agency Scopus (SJR), it has become a reference in its field. In the year of publication of the work, 2022, it was in position , thus managing to position itself as a Q1 (Primer Cuartil), in the category Mechanical Engineering.

From a relative perspective, and based on the normalized impact indicator calculated from the Field Citation Ratio (FCR) of the Dimensions source, it yields a value of: 1.14, which indicates that, compared to works in the same discipline and in the same year of publication, it ranks as a work cited above average. (source consulted: Dimensions Apr 2025)

Specifically, and according to different indexing agencies, this work has accumulated citations as of 2025-04-29, the following number of citations:

  • WoS: 3
  • Scopus: 3
  • OpenCitations: 2
Impact and social visibility

From the perspective of influence or social adoption, and based on metrics associated with mentions and interactions provided by agencies specializing in calculating the so-called "Alternative or Social Metrics," we can highlight as of 2025-04-29:

  • The use of this contribution in bookmarks, code forks, additions to favorite lists for recurrent reading, as well as general views, indicates that someone is using the publication as a basis for their current work. This may be a notable indicator of future more formal and academic citations. This claim is supported by the result of the "Capture" indicator, which yields a total of: 9 (PlumX).

With a more dissemination-oriented intent and targeting more general audiences, we can observe other more global scores such as:

    It is essential to present evidence supporting full alignment with institutional principles and guidelines on Open Science and the Conservation and Dissemination of Intellectual Heritage. A clear example of this is:

    • The work has been submitted to a journal whose editorial policy allows open Open Access publication.
    Leadership analysis of institutional authors

    This work has been carried out with international collaboration, specifically with researchers from: United Kingdom.

    There is a significant leadership presence as some of the institution’s authors appear as the first or last signer, detailed as follows: First Author (Castaño Peña, Juan Alejandro) .

    the author responsible for correspondence tasks has been Castaño Peña, Juan Alejandro.