Humanoid Interaction with Material-Moving Carts and Wheelbarrows

A whole-body kinematics approach is applied to a humanoid for maneuvering material-handling equipment normally used during disaster response scenarios. Dynamically different carts are used to explore the effects on gait stability. A shopping cart and a wheelbarrow are both utilized with emphasis being on the latter. In addition, external factors such as terrain and distinct loads are also varied in order to assess the impacts these may have on cart pushing. A full sized humanoid is used as a platform to evaluate gait performance. Furthermore, gait quality was assessed throughout different scenarios by calculating the ZMP error. Experimental results showed a 95% success rate throughout a varied range of tests.