LEGGED MOBILE ROBOT AND METHOD AND APPARATUS FOR CONTROLLING THE OPERATION THEREOF

A legged mobile robot is adaptively controlled in its attitude against variable external forces to continue the operation without inversion. When the legged mobile robot kicks an object having a certain mass, such as a ball, the robot is to be prevented from being fallen down by the reactive force from the object. Even if the mass or the repulsion coefficient of the object kicked is unknown, the operation of kicking the object at a sufficiently low speed is carried out at the outset to predict the reactive force produced on actual kicking in order to predict the reactive force produced on actual kicking. The result is that the stability in attitude can be maintained on kicking at an arbitrary speed. The legged mobile robot is able to take part as one of the players in athletic games, such as soccer games, in which each player performs his or her role as the or she is subjected to an external force.