Reflexive stability control framework for humanoid robots

Tadej Petric
2013
Article

Résumé

In this paper we propose a general control framework for ensuring stability of humanoid robots, determined through a normalized zero-moment-point (ZMP). The proposed method is based on the modified prioritized kinematic control, which allows smooth and continuous transition between priorities. This, as long as the selected criterion is met, allows arbitrary joint movement of a robot without any regard of the consequential movement of the ZMP. On the other hand, it constrains the movement when the criterion approaches a critical condition. The critical condition thus triggers a reflexive, subconscious behavior, which has a higher priority than the desired, conscious movement. The transition between the two is smooth and reversible. Furthermore, the switching is encapsulated in a single modified prioritized task control equation. We demonstrate the properties of the algorithm on two human-inspired robots developed in our laboratory; a human-inspired leg-robot used for imitating human movement and a skiing robot.

Official source

https://infoscience.epfl.ch/record/189952?ln=fr

À propos de ce résultat

Cette page est générée automatiquement et peut contenir des informations qui ne sont pas correctes, complètes, à jour ou pertinentes par rapport à votre recherche. Il en va de même pour toutes les autres pages de ce site. Veillez à vérifier les informations auprès des sources officielles de l'EPFL.

Concepts associés

Chargement

Publications associées

Chargement

Development of a Miniature Pair of Eyes With Camera for the Humanoid Robot Robota

Aude Billard, André Guignard

A growing trend in humanoid robotics tend at reducing the size of humanoids in order to lower their building costs. While growing small has its advantages, it also has drawbacks. In particular, providing miniature humanoids with the same sensorimotor capabilities as their grown-up peers is a challenge, both in terms of mechanics, electronics and control. The Robota project creates humanoids, whose size should match that of a commercial doll, so that they can be used as part of experiments with autistic children. Because these experiments measure the child's ability to socially interact with others, it is fundamental to provide the robot with sensory capabilities, such as speech and vision, that are at the basis of these interactions. This paper presents the creation of a miniature pair of mobile eyes, mounted with miniature cameras to provide Robota with binocular and mobile vision. The system allows the robot to blink, to direct its gaze toward or away from its user and to track the user's face.

2004

Chargement

Direct transfer of human motion trajectories to humanoid robots does not result in dynamically stable robot movements due to the differences in human and humanoid robot kinematics and dynamics. We developed a system that converts human movements captured by a low-cost RGB-D camera into dynamically stable humanoid movements. The transfer of human movements occurs in real-time. As need arises, the developed system can smoothly transition between unconstrained movement imitation and imitation with balance control, where movement reproduction occurs in the null space of the balance controller. The developed balance controller is based on an approximate model of the robot dynamics, which is sufficient to stabilize the robot during on-line imitation. However, the resulting movements cannot be guaranteed to be optimal because the model of the robot dynamics is not exact. The initially acquired movement is therefore subsequently improved by model-free reinforcement learning, both with respect to the accuracy of reproduction and balance control. We present experimental results in simulation and on a real humanoid robot.

IEEE2013

Chargement

Robotic animals are nowadays developed for various types of research, such as bio-inspired robotics, biomimetics and animal behavior studies. The miniaturization of technologies and the increase in performance of embedded systems allowed engineers to develop more powerful, sophisticated and miniature devices. The case of robotic fish is a typical example of such challenging design: the fish locomotion and body movements are difficult to reproduce and the device has to move autonomously underwater. More specifically, in the case of collective animal behavior research, the robotic device has to interact with animals by generating and exploiting signals relevant for social behavior. Once perceived by the animal society as conspecific, these robots can become powerful tools to study the animal behaviors, as they can at the same time monitor the changes in behavior and influence the collective choices of the animal society. In this work, we present novel robotized tools that can integrate shoals of fish in order to study their collective behaviors. This robotic platform is composed of two subsystems: a miniature wheeled mobile robot that can achieve dynamic movements and multi-robot long-duration experiments, and a robotic fish lure that is able to beat its tail to generate fish-like body movements. The two subsystems are coupled with magnets which allows the wheeled mobile robot to steer the robotic fish lure so that it reaches very high speeds and accelerations while achieving shoaling. An experimental setup to conduct studies on mixed societies of artificial and living fish was designed to facilitate the experiments for biologists. A software framework was also implemented to control the robots in a closed-loop using data extracted from visual tracking that retrieved the position of the robots and the fish. We selected the zebrafish Danio rerio as a model to perform experiments to qualify our system. We used the current state of the art on the zebrafish social behavior to define the specifications of the robots, and we performed stimuli analysis to improve their developments. Bio-inspired controllers were designed based on data extracted from experiments with zebrafish for the robots to mimic the zebrafish locomotion underwater. Experiments involving a robot with a shoal of fish in a constrained environment showed that the locomotion of the robot was one of the main factor to affect the collective behavior of zebrafish. We also shown that the body movements and the biomimetic appearance of the lure could increase its acceptance by fish. Finally, an experiment involving a mixed society of fish and robots qualified the robotic system to be integrated among a zebrafish shoal and to be able to influence the collective decisions of the fish. These results are very promising for the field of fish-robot interaction studies, as we showed the effect of the robots in long-duration experiments and repetitively, with the same order of response from the animals.

EPFL2017

Chargement

EPFL2017