Drive Structures and Whole-Body Coordinated Control Methods for Humanoid Robots

Humanoid robots require both high-performance drive structures and effective whole-body coordinated control to achieve dynamic motion, load transportation, and complex whole-body movements. This paper reviews the relationship between mechanical drive design and coordinated control methods for humanoid robots, with particular emphasis on the constraints imposed by actuator torque, mass distribution, transmission characteristics, and real-robot dynamics. At the hardware level, high-torque-density modular joints, lightweight transmissions, hybrid serial-parallel mechanisms, and drive-layout optimisation are examined in terms of their effects on joint torque, moving mass, and motion capability. At the control level, multi-joint coordinated motion control, model predictive control, reinforcement learning, and dynamics adaptation methods are discussed for maintaining stability and improving actuator utilisation under contact and joint constraints. The review further considers the differences between idealised simulation models and physical robots caused by friction, hysteresis, drive-torque deviations, contact compliance, and communication delays. The analysis indicates that drive structures establish the hardware boundaries of humanoid motion capability, while whole-body coordinated control determines how effectively these capabilities can be realised during operation. The paper therefore highlights the importance of integrated electromechanical and control co-design, including joint parameters, drive layouts, mass distribution, state estimation, and dynamics adaptation, as a potential direction for improving the robustness and efficiency of humanoid robots.