Proceedings of the 2010 IEEE
International Conference on Robotics and Biomimetics
December 14-18, 2010, Tianjin, China
Effect of Toe-Joint Bending on Biped Gait Performance
E. Kouchaki, M. J. Sadigh
Abstract—Walking like human might be considered as the
most important objective for humanoid robots. Toe-joint is
perhaps one of the most important missing parts of the
structure of humanoid, which can play essential role in natural
walking. Regarding this fact, the effect of toe-joint in improving
performance of motion is studied in this paper. To this end, a
nine-link biped is studied and compared with a similar toe-less
seven-link biped. Three indices of energy consumption, joint
torque demand, power consumption, are compared during a
complete step of both bipeds. Both single support and double
support phases are considered in this study.
Index terms- Bipeds; Toe-Joint; Consumed Power;
Consumed Energy
I. INTRODUCTION
B iped robots have better mobility as compared to
wheeled robots. This is true specially when motion on
rough train, steep stairs and environment with obstacle are
concerned. Common bipeds have toe-less feet which make
the motion quit different from that of man-kind. It might be
less them a decade since the time that specific attention is
paid to this subject by researchers [1]. One might realize the
importance of toe-joint by trying to walk with hard shoes,
which does not let toe bending. Walking with such shoes
could be even more difficult on steep slopes.
One of the most important issues in walking on two legs are
stability. The effect of toe-joint in stability was studied by
several researchers. Among this we may point works by
Ahn, Lee and Go [2] and Sellaouti, Stasse, Kajita, Yokoi and
Kheddar [3]. Nishiwaki, Kagami, Kuniyoshi, Inaba and
Inoue [4] extended humanoid robot “H6” by attaching toe
joints and discussed effectiveness of that in three aspects:
knee down motion, improvement walking speed
augmentation and high step climbing. Ahn, Lee and Go [2]
proposed a biped model with toes and compared it with a toe
less modal in aspect of ZMP position. In their model, adding
toe-joint increased duration of double support phase and
improved stability. Wang, Yu, Meng and Zhang [5] modeled
dynamics of biped with a concentrated mass and compared it
with a mass less four-link robot with toe-joint and calculated
consumed energy. Sellaouti, Stasse, Kajita, Yokoi and
Kheddar [3] used a new model of humanoid robot “HRP-2”
with passive toe-joint and achieved faster and smoother
walking. Kumar, Handharu, Yoon and Kim [6] improved the
E. Kouchaki is with the Mechanical Engineering Department, Isfahan
University of Technology and Azad University of Lenjan, Iran (e-mail:
kouchaki@me.iut.ac.ir).
M. J. Sadigh is with Faculty of Mechanical Engineering Department,
Isfahan University of Technology, Iran (e-mail: jafars@cc.iut.ac.ir).
978-1-4244-9318-0/10/$26.00 © 2010 IEEE
ZMP position of an inverted pendulum model by adding a
link as heel and a combination of spring and damper as toe.
Yamamoto, Sugihara and Nakamura [7] modeled toe using
parallel four-bar linkage and studied effects of that to the
ground reaction force distribution. Telaloni, Chevallereau
and Aoustin [8] investigated toe-joint effect on joint torques
and found that foot rising on toe reduces torque demand.
In this paper, effect of toe-joint on some important indices
of motion such as energy consumption, power demand and
joint torque demand is studied. To this end two bipeds with
similar dimensions and mass property during similar motion
is considered. One of the bipeds is toe-less while the other
has active toe-joint. Both bipeds experience similar hip joint
trajectory whereas the nine-link biped takes advantage of its
additional degree of freedom to have a more natural pattern
of walking. The motion is studied in both single and double
support phases. To this end, first a stable walking path is
planned for hip and ankle joints and based on that, joint
angle trajectory is planned. The consumed torque is
calculated using inverse dynamics.
This paper consists of six sections. Dynamic modeling is
discussed in second section. The third section describes the
method of path generation. The indices of energy, power and
torque are introduced in forth section. Fifth section presents
simulation results followed by some concluding remarks in
last section.
II. DYNAMIC MODELING
Let us consider a nine-link biped with toe-joint as
represented in Figure 1.
Some features of the model and hypothesis are as follow:
- Model is 2D and moves in sagittal plane.
- All links are rigid and each two adjacent links are
connected together with a revolute joint.
- All eight joints of model are actuated with colocated
actuators.
- Both single support phase (SSP) and double support
phase (DSP) are considered.
- Adequate friction to prevent slipping is provided by
the ground surface.
The system has eight degrees of freedom, which is
described by generalized coordinates vector:
ሬԦ ൌ ሾ‫ݍ‬ଵ ‫ݍ‬ଶ ‫ݍ‬ଷ ‫ݍ‬ସ ‫ݍ‬ହ ‫ ଼ݍ ଻ݍ ଺ݍ‬ሿ்
‫ܙ‬ (1)
where q1-q8 are relative angles between each two links and
are shown in Figure 1. One gait step includes two single
support, SSP, and double support, DSP phases.
697
 ‫ۻ‬ૡൈૡ ‫ܙ‬ሷ ൅ ‫ۼ‬ૡൈ૚ ൌ ۰ૡൈૡ ૌ (6)

where ‫ۻ‬, ‫ ۼ‬and ۰ are as follows:

q4 ۸‫ ܂ ܋‬۲ ۸ ‫ ܂‬ሺ۱‫ܙ‬ሶ ൅ ۵ሻ ‫܂‬

‫ۻ‬ൌ൤ ൨ǡ‫ ۼ‬ൌ ቈ ‫܋‬ ቉ ǡ ۰ ൌ ൤ ۸‫ ܋‬൨ (7)
۸ ۸ሶ‫ܙ‬ሶ ૙
q5

III. PATH GENERATION

In this section, two paths are specified for hip and swing
y ankle joints (Figure 2). To have smooth motion for hip joint,
q6 q3
a trigonometric function is used as follow [5]:
q7

q8 q2 ‫ܮ‬௦
x ‫ݔ‬ு ൌ ‫ ݐ‬െ െ ‫ܮ‬௙௢௧ െ ‫ܮ‬௧௢௘
ʹ
q1 (8)
݄௦ ʹߨ
‫ݕ‬ு ൌ ൜ͳ െ ܿ‫ ݏ݋‬൬ ‫ݐ‬൰ൠ ൅ ‫ܮ‬௧௛ ൅ ‫ܮ‬௦௛ െ ݄௦ െ ‫ݐ‬௟
Fig. 1. Nine-link biped model ʹ ܶ

The SSP starts when toe of the rear leg leaves the ground
and ends when it again comes in contact with the ground.
The equation of motion in this phase is:
ሺ“ǡ‫ܙ‬ሶ ሻ‫ܙ‬ሶ ൅
where Ls is one step length, T is one step period, Lfot is foot
length, Ltoe is toe length, Lth is thigh length, Lsh is shank
length, hs is vertical width of hip path curve and tl is a
tolerance inserted in yH equation to prevent the model from

ሺ‫ܙ‬ሻ‫ܙ‬ሷ ൅
ሺ‫ܙ‬ሻൌɒɒ (2) singularity condition in knee joint. In this research torso in
Figure 1 remains vertical during walking. This way Eq. 8
where D is ͺ ൈ ͺ symmetric inertia matrix, C is ͺ ൈ ͺ can be used as path of the center of mass with a vertical
coriolis and centripetal matrix, G is ͺ ൈ ͳ gravity vector and shift.
 is ͺ ൈ ͳ torque vector. Trajectory of swing ankle is considered to have two
The DSP starts at the end of SSP, when the swing leg sections related to double support and single support phases.
comes in contact with the ground and ends at the beginning During DSP toe angle value (q1) begins from an initial value
of next SSP, when the other leg, stance leg, starts to detach and linearly up to zero at the end of this phase. Then the
from the ground. In this phase the system has two holonomic ankle tracks a circular arc with a variable radius:
constraints defined by:
‫ݔ‬௔ௗ ൌ െ‫ܮ‬௦ െ ‫ܮ‬௔ ܿ‫ݏ݋‬ሺ ߠ௔ ሻ
š െ (9)
૎ሺ‫ܙ‬ሻ ൌ ൬ ୲ ൰ൌͲ (3) ‫ݕ‬௔ௗ ൌ ‫ܮ‬௔ ‫݊݅ݏ‬ሺ ߠ௔ ሻ
›୲

in which ሺš୲ ǡ ›୲ ሻ is position of tip of rear foot. In this where subscript ‘d’ refers to DSP, La and Ʌୟ are respectively
situation the system has 6 DOFs. The equations of motion of the variable radius and its angle with the horizon, shown in
the system in this phase can be obtained as: Fig. 2. for state that toe-joint doesn’t bend the path will be a
circle with radius La=Lfot+Ltoe. During SSP a cubic
ሺ‫ܙ‬ሻ‫ܙ‬ሷ ൅
ሺ‫ܙ‬ሻൌɒɒ ൅ ۸ ‫ૃ ܂‬
ሺ“ǡ‫ܙ‬ሶ ሻ‫ܙ‬ሶ ൅
(4) polynomial in following form is used to define ankle path:

in which ۲, ۱, ۵ and ૌ are defined as before and ૃ is the ଷ

‫ݕ‬௔௦ ൌ ܽଷ ‫ݔ‬௔௦ ଶ
൅ ܽଶ ‫ݔ‬௔௦ ൅ ܽଵ ‫ݔ‬௔௦ ൅ ܽ଴ (10)
array of Lagrange multipliers and ۸ is define as:
In this relation subscript ‘s’ refers to SSP. Coefficients a3-a0
μ૎
۸ൌ (5) should be obtained from continuity condition of the curve
μ‫ܙ‬ and its derivative also the path should satisfy the condition
of yas and its derivative being zero at the end of SSP.
To eliminate Lagrange multipliers one may pre multiply
By using these paths and inverse kinematic, angles
Eq. 4 by transpose of orthogonal compliment of ۸; i.e. matrix
trajectory of the model can be obtained in one step of
۸‫ ܋‬which satisfies ۸۸‫ ܋‬ൌ ૙. As ۸‫ ܋‬is a ͺ ൈ ͸ matrix, the
walking.
resulting equations represent a set of six new equations with
eight unknown of “ଵ ǡ ǥ ǡ “଼ . In order to complete these
equations one should append second time derivative of
constraint equations, Eq. (3), to obtain

698
 Ls V. SIMULATION RESULTS
In this section, two models are considered: model with toe
hs bending, and a toe-less model. Motion paths of hip and
swing ankle for these two systems are the same as Figure 2.
Ankle path in DSP Physical parameters of the model in this simulation are
Ankle path in DSP shown in table I. to make two models comparable the seven-
when toe doesn’t bend
link model is obtained from a nine-link model whose toe-
La joint angle are fixed during motion.

La TABLE I
a Physical parameters of model
q1
Length Mass Moment of Inertia Center of Mass
a (cm) (Kg) (Kg cm2) (cm)
Swing leg in beginning of the step Torso 40 30 4000 20
The end of DSP Thigh 45 7 1181 20
The end of SSP
y Shank 45 5 843.75 20
Foot 13 2 28.17 5
Stance leg Toe 7 1 4.08 5

Ls x
Fig. 2. Generated paths for hip and swing ankle joints in one step of
walking
IV. POWER AND ENERGY INDEX
To evaluate the toe-joint effect on biped walking
performance, in this study consumed power and energy and
maximum exerted torque in joints are investigated.
Consumed power in joint ‘i’ of the model in one gait can be
written as a function of time as follow:
ܲ୧ ሺ‫ݐ‬ሻ ൌ ȁ߬௜ ‫ݍ‬ሶ ௜ ȁ
where ‫ݍ‬ሶ ௜ is angular velocity of ith joint and i is ith
component of exerted torque vector  which can be obtained
by inverse dynamics, having calculated vector q and its
derivatives.
Consumed energy as a function of time can be calculated
by integrating Eq. 11 to get:
௧ reduction in almost all joints in state with toe bending. It can
୧ ሺ‫ݐ‬ሻ ൌ ‫׬‬଴ ȁ߬௜ ‫ݍ‬ሶ ௜ ȁ݀ߟ Ͳ ൏ ‫ ݐ‬൏ ܶ
where d is time differential variable. Energy consumption
index for joint ‘i’ defined as total consumed energy in the
joint during one walking step and can be written as:
்
‫ܫ‬୉୧ ൌ ‫׬‬଴ ȁ߬௜ ‫ݍ‬ሶ ௜ ȁ݀‫ݐ‬
Total energy index is sum of the energy consumption
index in joints:
Simulation is done for step length Ls=50 cm, and walking
speed of 72 cm/s. total step period is T=0.7 s. Duration of
DSP is 0.1 s and remaining 0.6 s is SSP time. Joints angle
variations in one step obtained using inverse kinematic and
are shown with robot motion for two models in Figure 3 and
Figure 4. In this simulation rate of change of stance toe-joint
angle is 25 deg/s during SSP.
Joint torques are calculated using inverse dynamic and
from that power function, consumed energy and energy
index are obtained. Time history of joint torques during one
step of walking are shown in Figure 5. As the Figure shows
absolute value of exerted torques are reduced in some joints
when toe-joint is bending, where most of this reduction
occurred during DSP.
(11)
Consumed power and energy curves are shown in Figure
6 and Figure 7 respectively. Figure 6 shows that consumed
power is reduced in toe-bending state in almost all joints.
One should note that, the power demand and consumed
energy of stance knee joint for toe bending model is larger
than toe-less model.
Table II shows maximum absolute joint torques in DSP
and consumed energy index. Table numbers shows torque
(12) be verified from table II that most effect of toe bending on
reduction of consumed energy occurs in 2th, 6th and 7th joint,
which are related to stance ankle, swing knee and swing
ankle respectively. In other words, toe bending do more help
to these joints during one step
In the last column of Table II total consumed energy
(13) during one step is shown which represents a reduction in
total energy consumption due to toe bending of about 14
percent.

‫ܫ‬୉ ൌ σ଼௜ୀଵ ‫ܫ‬ா௜ (14)

699
 1.2 1.2

1 1

0.8 0.8
Y (m)

Y (m)
0.6 0.6

0.4 0.4

0.2 0.2

0 0

-0.8 -0.6 -0.4 -0.2 0 0.2 0.4 -0.8 -0.6 -0.4 -0.2 0 0.2 0.4
X (m) X (m)
4 4

3.5 3.5

3 q5 q4 3 q5 q4

Joint Angle (rad)

Joint Angle (rad)

2.5 2.5

2 2
q2 q6 q7 q2 q6 q7

1.5 1.5

1 1 q3
q3
0.5 0.5 q1
q8
q8 q1
0 0
0 0.1 0.2 0.3 0.4 0.5 0.6 0.7 0 0.1 0.2 0.3 0.4 0.5 0.6 0.7
Time (s) Time (s)

Fig. 3. Biped motion and joint angles in toe-less state Fig. 4. Biped motion and joint angles in state with toe bending
Torque1 (Nm)

Torque5 (Nm)

100 40
0 20
0
-100
0 0.2 0.4 0.6 0 0.2 0.4 0.6
Torque2 (Nm)

Torque6 (Nm)

200
0
100 -20
0 -40

0 0.2 0.4 0.6 0 0.2 0.4 0.6

Torque3 (Nm)

Torque7 (Nm)

0 60
40
-50
20
-100 0
0 0.2 0.4 0.6 0 0.2 0.4 0.6
Torque4 (Nm)

Torque8 (Nm)

0
0
-20 -10

-40 -20

0 0.2 0.4 0.6 0 0.2 0.4 0.6

Time (s) Time (s)

Fig. 5 Exerted torques in joints during one step. Toe-less model: ‘- -‘, toe-bending model: ‘—‘

700
 15 30

P1 (Nm/s)

P5 (Nm/s)
10 20
5 10

0 0
0 0.1 0.2 0.3 0.4 0.5 0.6 0 0.1 0.2 0.3 0.4 0.5 0.6
P2 (Nm/s) 100 600

P6 (Nm/s)
400
50
200

0 0
0 0.1 0.2 0.3 0.4 0.5 0.6 0 0.1 0.2 0.3 0.4 0.5 0.6

80 400
P3 (Nm/s)

P7 (Nm/s)
60
40 200
20
0 0
0 0.1 0.2 0.3 0.4 0.5 0.6 0 0.1 0.2 0.3 0.4 0.5 0.6

80 60
P4 (Nm/s)

P8 (Nm/s)
60
40
40
20 20

0 0
0 0.1 0.2 0.3 0.4 0.5 0.6 0 0.1 0.2 0.3 0.4 0.5 0.6
Time (s) Time (s)

Fig. 6 Consumed power in joints during one step. Toe-less model: ‘- -‘, toe-bending model: ‘—‘

4
4
E1 (J)

E5 (J)

2 2

0 0
0 0.1 0.2 0.3 0.4 0.5 0.6 0 0.1 0.2 0.3 0.4 0.5 0.6
30
30
E2 (J)

E6 (J)

20
20
10 10
0 0
0 0.1 0.2 0.3 0.4 0.5 0.6 0 0.1 0.2 0.3 0.4 0.5 0.6

30
10
E3 (J)

E7 (J)

20
5
10

0 0
0 0.1 0.2 0.3 0.4 0.5 0.6 0 0.1 0.2 0.3 0.4 0.5 0.6

8
4
E4 (J)

E8 (J)

6
4 2
2
0 0
0 0.1 0.2 0.3 0.4 0.5 0.6 0 0.1 0.2 0.3 0.4 0.5 0.6
Time (s) Time (s)

Fig. 7 Consumed energy in joints during one step. Toe-less model: ‘- -‘, toe-bending model: ‘—‘

701
 TABLE II
Maximum Torque Value and Consumed Energy Index
Maximum Torque Value (Nm)

Joint 1 Joint 2 Joint 3 Joint 4 Joint 5 Joint 6 Joint 7 Joint 8

Without
138 55 118 12 11 52 72 26
Toe
With Toe 130 52 111 13 14 47 67 24

Consumed Energy Index (J)

IE1 IE2 IE3 IE4 IE5 IE6 IE7 IE8 IE

Without
0 29.5 11.1 9.4 5.2 36.2 29.3 0 122
Toe
With Toe 4.1 20.7 12 7.9 5 28.5 23.6 5.2 107

and Toe Tip” International Conference on Humanoid Robots, pp.-,

Pitsburgh, Nov., 2007.
CONCLUSION [8] D. Tlalolini, C. Chevallereau, and Y. Aoustin, “Human-like walking:
A nine-link biped robot with toe-joint is modeled. To optimal motion of a 3D bipedal robot with toes joint” IEEE/ASME
Transactions on Mechatronics, 1-11, 2010.
evaluate effect of toe-joint on gait performance two state of
toe-less and toe-bending for the model is considered. Based
on generated paths for hip and swing ankle, inverse
kinematic is done to obtain joint-angle trajectories during
one-step. Required torques for tracking the trajectories are
computed using inverse dynamic. Then maximum exerted
torques and consumed power and energy is obtained for two
states during one walking step. Simulation results show that
bending of toe reduced total power and energy consumption
of biped and reduced maximum torque value however this
effect not very significant. Most effect of toe-joint on
consumed energy reduction occurs in swing knee, swing,
and stance ankle joints. In stance knee joint toe bending
increases index of consumed energy.

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