Abstract:
The RISE lab at SMME NUST has been continuously working on the research and
development of robotics since its inception in the early 2000s. One of the major projects
that has been worked on in the RISE lab has been the building of the concept of a
humanoid bipedal robot and turning it into a reality. Named NUSTBOT-3, this humanoid
bipedal robot was the work of one of the student’s (Mr. Zaid Ahsan Shah) master’s
thesis, who fabricated this to prove his thesis of making a humanoid robot walk from a
point to another while having its ankles unactuated. This concept is known as
Decentralized Pattern Generator (DPG) and is one of the first major works done on a
concept to generation walking patterns for any type of robot other than the commonly
used Centralized Pattern Generator.
However, the results in hardware were not as expected and this specific humanoid robot
did need actuated ankles to function properly and walk seamlessly from a point to
another. This final year project thesis focuses on the evaluation of NUSTBOT-3, studying
various actuated ankle and foot designs of different humanoid robots present globally and
making modifications to allow it to be able to be put on NUSTBOT-3 without making
significant changes to the lower limbs of the humanoid robot.
