Human Centered Robotics Lab (HCR Laboratory), Department of Mechanical Engineering, University of Texas at Austin, Austin, Texas, USA

This video is part of the History Channel's series Ancient Aliens. It was originally aired in August 7, 2015. The UT Human Centered Robotics Laboratory showcases and speaks about ongoing research on whole-body control of humanoid systems and bipedal locomotion.

Click to expand...

Whole-Body Operational Space Controllers (WBOSC) are versatile and well-suited for simultaneously controlling motion and force behaviors which can enable sophisticated modes of locomotion and balance. In this study, we formulate a WBOSC for point-foot bipeds with Series Elastic Actuators (SEA) and experiment with it using a teen size SEA biped robot. Our contributions include: 1) devising a WBOSC strategy for point-foot bipedal robots, 2) formulating planning algorithms for achieving unsupported dynamic balancing on our point foot biped robot and testing them using WBOSC, 3) formulating force feedback control of the internal forces – corresponding to the subset of contact forces that do not generate robot motions – to precisely regulate contact interactions with the complex environment, and 4) experimenting with motion and force behaviors over disjointed terrains also using WBOSC. We experimentally demonstrate the efficacy of our new whole-body control and planning strategies via balancing over a disjointed terrain and via attaining dynamic balance through continuous stepping without a mechanical support.

Click to expand...

In this workshop talk we first present proprioceptive and exteroceptive state estimation to detect external collisions on mobile bases. We then present data fusion techniques combining inertial measurements and motion capture data to estimate the pose of a point foot biped robot.

Click to expand...