01511nas a2200193 4500008003900000245004800039210004800087260004100135520094000176653001301116100001401129700001801143700002101161700002001182700001501202700001701217700001501234856006801249 2016 d00aToward an Adaptive Foot for Natural Walking0 aToward an Adaptive Foot for Natural Walking aCancun, Mexico, November 15-17, 20163 a

Many walking robot presented in literature stand
on rigid flat feet, with a few notable exceptions that embed
flexibility in their feet to optimize the energetic cost of walking.
This paper proposes a novel adaptive robot foot design, whose
main goal is to ease the task of standing and walking on uneven
terrains. After explaining the rationale behind our design
approach, we present the design of the SoftFoot, a foot able
to comply with uneven terrains and to absorb shocks thanks to
its intrinsic adaptivity, while still being able to rigidly support
the stance, maintaining a rather extended contact surface,
and effectively enlarging the equivalent support polygon. The
paper introduces the robot design and prototype and presents
preliminary validation and comparison versus a rigid flat foot
with comparable footprint and sole.

10aRobotics1 aPiazza, C1 aDella Santina1 aGasparri, G., M.1 aCatalano, M. G.1 aGrioli, G.1 aGarabini, M.1 aBicchi, A. uhttp://ieeexplore.ieee.org/stamp/stamp.jsp?tp=&arnumber=7803423