Abstract
Humanoid robots posses the unique ability to cross obstacles by stepping over or upon them. However, conventional 2D methods for robot navigation fail to exploit this ability and thus design trajectories only by circumventing obstacles. Recently, global algorithms have been presented that take into account this feature of humanoids. However, due to high computational complexity, most of them are very time consuming. In this paper, we present a novel approach to footstep planning in obstacle cluttered environments that employs a human-like strategy to terrain traversal. Design methodology for obstacle stepping over motion designed for use with this algorithm is also presented. The paper puts forth simulation results of footstep planning as well as experimental results for the stepping over trajectory designed for use with hardware execution of the footstep plan.