MARLO, bipedal robot, Control Systems Laboratory, Ann Arbor, Michigan, USA

MARLO is a 3D ATRIAS-series robot; its hips can move laterally as well as forward and backward. During this test in October 2012, the robot is on a boom while we check out the ethercat network and basic real-time control software in xPC Target. The robot was designed at Oregon State University. Control algorithms were designed at the University of Michigan.

Two other copies of the ATRIAS robots exist and are located at Oregon State University (J. Hurst) and Carnegie Mellon (H. Geyer).

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MARLO is an underactuated 3D bipedal robot with passive prosthetic feet. Its feedback control is designed using virtual constraints. In this experiment, MARLO is attached to a boom, making it a planar robot. A feedback controller is designed to make MARLO highly resistant to large shoves.

Video concludes with a preview of MARLO walking in 3D, that is, without the boom.

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Testing done on Saturday November 23, 2013 at 8 AM in front of the EECS Building on the University of Michigan North Campus. The temperature was -2 C (about 29 F). MARLO is an underactuated 3D bipedal robot with passive prosthetic feet. Its feedback control is designed using virtual constraints. In previous experiments, MARLO was attached to a boom. but with improved control, the robot can now walk without any external support. A mobile gantry supports a safety cable to catch the robot when it falls, avoiding expensive and time-consuming repairs. The robot is one of 3 ATRIAS-series robots designed and built by Jonathan Hurst at Oregon State University. The other two copies are at CMU [with H. Geyer] and Oregon State.

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[As far as we know, MARLO is the first two-legged robot with passive feet to stand motionless and then walk on flat ground or up very mild slopes without external support. If you know of others, email our channel]. Going in reverse chronological order, the process of getting the robot to stand quietly and then walk without external support is presented for MARLO, an underactuated 3D bipedal robot with passive prosthetic feet. The robot's feedback control is designed using virtual constraints. In early experiments, MARLO was attached to a boom. but with improved control, the robot can now walk without any external support. A safety cable attached to a winch on the ceiling is used to catch the robot when it falls, avoiding expensive and time-consuming repairs. MARLO at Michigan is one of 3 ATRIAS-series robots designed and built by Jonathan Hurst at Oregon State University. The other two copies are at CMU [with H. Geyer] and Oregon State.

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MARLO is a 3D robot designed to study principles of dynamic walking. Unlike most other 3D walking robots, MARLO does not have large feet with powered ankles. This forces the robot to balance dynamically, but may lead to more natural and more energetically efficient walking.

MARLO is one of three ATRIAS 2.1 robots designed and built by Prof. Jonathan Hurst and the Dynamic Robotics Laboratory at Oregon State University.

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BTN LiveB1G was filming MARLO the day we began testing a new method for controller design.

The controller is based on virtual constraints and hybrid zero dynamics (HZD). Here we are testing a new method for designing virtual constraints based on bilinear matrix inequality (BMI) optimization.

MARLO is a 3D robot designed to study principles of dynamic walking. Unlike most other 3D walking robots, MARLO does not have large feet with powered ankles. This forces the robot to balance dynamically, but may lead to more natural and more energetically efficient walking.

MARLO is one of three ATRIAS 2.1 robots designed and built by Prof. Jonathan Hurst and the Dynamic Robotics Laboratory at Oregon State University.

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Happy Holidays from MARLO and the University of Michigan Bipedal Robot Lab! These are some initial results using gait transitions and nonholonomic virtual constraints. More to come soon.

MARLO is one of three ATRIAS 2.1 robots designed and built by Prof. Jonathan Hurst and the Dynamic Robotics Laboratory at Oregon State University.

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MARLO is one of three ATRIAS 2.1 robots designed and built by Prof. Jonathan Hurst and the Dynamic Robotics Laboratory at Oregon State University. Unlike most other 3D walking robots, MARLO does not have large feet with powered ankles. This forces the robot to balance dynamically, but may lead to more natural and efficient walking. The walking controller is designed using nonholonomic virtual constraints. For more details, see
"Nonholonomic Virtual Constraints for Dynamic Walking"

by Brent Griffin and Jessy Grizzle

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MARLO is one of three ATRIAS 2.1 robots designed and built by Prof. Jonathan Hurst and the Dynamic Robotics Laboratory at Oregon State University. Unlike most other 3D walking robots, MARLO does not have large feet with powered ankles. This forces the robot to balance dynamically, but may lead to more natural and efficient walking.

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MARLO walked around the visitor center at Michigan Robotics Day on April 5, 2016. She demonstrated stepping, walking, turning and responding to perturbations: humans playing "robot ping-pong" with her!

The control design and implementation are done in the Dynamic Leg Laboratory at the University of Michigan led by Professor Jessy Grizzle. MARLO is one of three ATRIAS 2.1 bipedal robots designed and built by Prof. Jonathan Hurst and the Dynamic Robotics Laboratory at Oregon State University. Unlike most other 3D walking robots, MARLO is walking on very tiny passive feet (i.e., no ankle actuation) and she is not using a camera or anything else to sense the terrain. The self-balance is based on an advanced feedback control system, a dynamics model, and proprioception (joint encoders and an IMU). The navigation is directed by a joystick controller.

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The control design and implementation are done in the Dynamic Leg Laboratory at the University of Michigan led by Professor Jessy Grizzle. MARLO is one of three ATRIAS 2.1 bipedal robots designed and built by Prof. Jonathan Hurst and the Dynamic Robotics Laboratory at Oregon State University. Unlike most other 3D walking robots, MARLO is walking on very tiny passive feet (i.e., no ankle actuation) and she is not using a camera or anything else to sense the terrain. The self-balance is based on an advanced feedback control system, a dynamics model, and proprioception (joint encoders and an IMU). The navigation is directed by a joystick controller.

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MARLO had a 260 meters walk in the campus, the maximum slope change is 7 degree. It finally got foot slip on the slope

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Control Method: Two 2D-Decoupled Controllers and Gait Library; paper to be submitted soon.

Is this the steepest slope a bipedal robot has walked down? We're not sure, but it does take a pretty good control algorithm to handle it and we have installed some nice ones on MARLO.

To answer a recent question, MARLO is a she; her name is from Marlo Thomas, a famous actress from an age before YouTube, born in Detroit, Michigan in 1937. This is a little far back for some of you; we get that. If you want the full acronym, it kind of stands for Michigan Anthropomorphic Robot for Locomotion Outdoors. The robot is not so anthropomorphic, we get that too, but we did our best in making a plausible acronym to go along with MARLO. In the beginning, that Locomotion Outdoors part was kind of a pipe dream because she [MARLO] was stumbling a lot. We're getting better!

The control design and implementation are done in the Dynamic Legged Locomotion Laboratory at the University of Michigan led by Professor Jessy Grizzle. MARLO is one of three ATRIAS 2.1 bipedal robots designed and built by Prof. Jonathan Hurst and the Dynamic Robotics Laboratory at Oregon State University. Unlike most other 3D walking robots, MARLO is walking on very tiny passive feet (i.e., no ankle actuation) and she is not using a camera or anything else to sense the terrain. The self-balance is based on an advanced feedback control system, a dynamics model, and proprioception (joint encoders and an IMU). The navigation is directed by a joystick controller.

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The gantry is the limiting factor in this video. We use it because if the robot falls and breaks, we have to repair it, replace parts, and such, but mostly because we only have one robot, so we try to take care of it!

The control design and implementation for MARLO are done in the Dynamic Legged Locomotion Laboratory at the University of Michigan led by Professor Jessy Grizzle. MARLO is one of three ATRIAS 2.1 bipedal robots designed and built by Prof. Jonathan Hurst and the Dynamic Robotics Laboratory at Oregon State University. Unlike most other 3D walking robots, MARLO is walking on very tiny passive feet (i.e., no ankle actuation) and she is not using a camera or anything else to sense the terrain. The self-balance is based on an advanced feedback control system, a dynamics model, and proprioception (joint encoders and an IMU). The navigation is directed by a joystick controller.

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Michigan Engineering's bipedal robot, MARLO, is walking better than ever thanks to recent algorithmic balance breakthroughs.

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The control design and implementation for MARLO are done in the Dynamic Legged Locomotion Laboratory at the University of Michigan led by Professor Jessy Grizzle. MARLO is one of three ATRIAS 2.1 bipedal robots designed and built by Prof. Jonathan Hurst and the Dynamic Robotics Laboratory at Oregon State University.

MARLO is walking on prosthetic feet with women's size 7 tennis shoes. There is no actuation at the ankle she is not using a camera or anything else to sense the terrain. The self-balance is based on an advanced feedback control system, a dynamic model, and proprioception (joint encoders and an IMU).

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This is our first use of a "human gantry" system! The idea is that we can safely slow the fall of the robot and minimize damage, and yet we can do places where our wheel-based gantry could not go. Because we only have one robot, we have to take care of it.

The control design and implementation for MARLO are done in the Dynamic Legged Locomotion Laboratory at the University of Michigan led by Professor Jessy Grizzle. MARLO is one of three ATRIAS 2.1 bipedal robots designed and built by Prof. Jonathan Hurst and the Dynamic Robotics Laboratory at Oregon State University.

MARLO is walking on prosthetic feet with women's size 7 SKIDS tennis shoes. There is no actuation at the ankle. She is not using a camera or anything else to sense the terrain. The self-balance is based on an advanced feedback control system, a dynamic model, and proprioception (joint encoders and an IMU). The navigation is directed by a joystick controller.

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The Wave Field is an earthen sculpture on the Southeast side of the Francois-Xavier Bagnoud (FXB) Building in University of Micigan. It was designed by and created by Maya Lin. It is truly an artistic treasure and a perfect play ground for bipedal robot. The various humps and valleys challenge robot on lateral and sagittal balance. MARLO will come back with better lateral controller.

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