iCub, humanoid robot, Italian Institute of Technology (IIT), Genova, Italy, RobotCub Consortium, Europe

[Administrator]

Torque Control balancing on iCub@Heidelberg

Published on May 29, 2015

This video shows the latest results achieved in the whole-body control of the iCub, the humanoid robot developed by the Italian Institute of Technology. In particular, it shows the performances of the balancing controller on the specific platform of iCub@Heidelberg, which has a different hardware configuration from the classical iCub.

The control of the robot is achieved by regulating the interaction forces between the robot and its surrounding environment. In particular, the force and torque exchanged between the robot's feet and the floor are regulated so that the robot keeps its balance even when strongly perturbed.

The results have been achieved by the researches working at the Italian Institute of Technology and, in particular, by those funded by the European Projects CoDyCo and Koroibot with Dr. Francesco Nori as principal investigator.

 

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iCub walking

Published on Jun 11, 2015

 

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In Studio "iCub" puppy robot, and Roberto Cingolani

Published on Jun 24, 2015

iCub is a puppy 5 years, solutions to problems that we do not know yet. It is not remote controlled, is a humanoid, does it all! It needs to re-create that connection body and mind of humans. iCub is an Italian excellence, a global product of IT, was born in Genoa. Piero Angela: "The Italian Institute of Technology has 1500 people from 56 countries"

 

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Toward Intelligent Humanoids | iCub 2012
October 8, 2012

Director / Screenwriter / Voice Over: Mikhail Frank
Co-Director / Cinematographer / Editor: Tomas Donoso (tomasdonoso.com)

 

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The iCub audio and visual attention system

Published on Jul 4, 2015

Saliency based sensor fusion of the audio and visual channel into a unique saliency map. Additional gaze strategy directs the iCub heads towards stimuli out of the field of view

 

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The iCub Project: a shared platform for research in artificial intelligence and robotics

Published on Jul 8, 2015

 

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Learning Peripersonal Space on the iCub

Published on Sep 21, 2015

In this video, the tactile system is used in order to build a representation of space immediately surrounding the body - peripersonal space. In particular, the iCub skin acts as a reinforcement for the visual system, with the goal of enhancing the perception of the surrounding world. By exploiting a temporal and spatial congruence between a purely visual event (e.g. an object approaching the robot’s body) and a purely tactile event (e.g. the same object eventually touching a skin part), a representation is learned that allows the robot to autonomously establish a margin of safety around its body through interaction with the environment - extending its cutaneous tactile space into the space surrounding it.
We considered a scenario where external objects were approaching individual skin parts. A volume was chosen to demarcate a theoretical visual “receptive field” around every taxel. Learning then proceeded in a distributed, event-driven manner - every taxel stores and continuously updates a record of the count of positive (resulting in contact) and negative examples it has encountered.

 

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Robot that can talk, see and hear engages with humans

Published on Sep 17, 2015

iCub, a talking humanoid robot head which is being taught how to talk and engage in natural interaction with humans, being unveiled at the ScotSoft Developers Conference in Edinburgh

 

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iCub Eye Calibration

Published on Oct 19, 2015

 

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iCub getting better in balancing on one foot

Published on Nov 10, 2015

This video shows some of the work going on at the Italian Institute of Technology aimed at improving the capacities of iCub when balancing on one foot.

 

[Administrator]

Published on Jun 8, 2015

This video shows the latest results achieved in the whole-body control of the iCub, the humanoid robot developed by the Italian Institute of Technology. In particular, it shows the performances of the balancing controller on the specific platform of iCub@Heidelberg, which has a different hardware configuration from the classical iCub.

The control of the robot is achieved by regulating the interaction forces between the robot and its surrounding environment. In particular, the force and torque exchanged between the robot's feet and the floor are regulated so that the robot keeps its balance even when strongly perturbed.

The results have been achieved by the researches working at the Italian Institute of Technology and, in particular, by those funded by the European Projects CoDyCo and Koroibot with Dr. Francesco Nori as principal investigator.

 

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iCub performing YOGA++ demo

Published on Apr 28, 2016

The video shows the results of the iCub yoga++ demo on simulation (gazebo). This simulation can be replicated on Linux and OsX.

 

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A Cartesian 6-DoF gaze controller for humanoid robots

Published on May 4, 2016

This video shows how we address the problem of controlling the 3D fixation point of a binocular, 6 Degrees-of-Freedom (DOF), antropomorhic head.
It is possible to define the fixation point as the virtual end-effector of the kinematic chain composed by the neck and the eyes. Consequently,
the control of the fixation point can be achieved using techniques for inverse kinematics and trajectory generation normally adopted for controlling
robotic arms. Further, the redundancy of the task allows for the integration of different corollary behaviors in addition to the main control loop:
vestibulo-ocular reflex (VOR), sacccadic behavior, and gaze stabilization (for a video on the gaze stabilization system, please refer to
https://youtu.be/NSGea-tCLZM)
REFERENCE PAPER: Roncone A., Pattacini U., Metta G., Natale L. 2016, 'A Cartesian 6-DoF Gaze Controller for Humanoid Robots',
Proceedings of Robotics: Science and Systems (RSS), Ann Arbor, MI, June 18-22 2016

 

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iCub performing highly dynamic balancing via force control

Published on Jul 29, 2016

This video shows the latest results on the whole-body control of humanoid robots achieved by the Dynamic Interaction Control Lab at the Italian Institute of Technology.

The control of the robot is achieved by regulating the interaction forces between the robot and its surrounding environment. The force and torque exchanged between the robot's feet and the floor is regulated so that the robot keeps its balance even when strongly perturbed.

In particular, the control architecture is composed of two nested control loops. The internal loop, which runs at 1 KHz, is in charge of stabilizing any desired joint torque. This task is achieved thanks to an off-line identification procedure providing us with a reliable model of friction and motor constants. The outer loop, which generates desired joint torques at 100 Hz, is a momentum based control algorithm with the formalism of free-floating systems subject to constraints (i.e. Differential Algebraic Equation frameworks). More precisely, the control objective for the outer loop is the stabilization of the robot’s linear and angular momentum and the associated zero dynamics. The latter objective can be used to stabilize a desired joint configuration. The stability of the control framework is shown to be in the sense of Lyapunov. The contact forces and torques at the contacts are regulated so as to break the contact only at desired configurations. Switching between several contacts is taken into account thanks to a finite-state-machine that dictates the constraints acting on the system. The control framework is implemented on the iCub humanoid robot.

 

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Hierarchical grasp controller using tactile feedback

Published on Oct 18, 2016

iCub uses tactile feedback to control and improve object grip.

Details in: Hierarchical Grasp Controller using Tactile Feedback, M. Regoli, U. Pattacini, Metta, G. and Natale, L., Humanoids 2016.

 

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HeiCub walking motion

Published on Jan 5, 2016

HeiCub squat motions

Published on Jan 5, 2016

HeiCub walking with NMPC based pattern generator

Published on Oct 28, 2016

Implementation and performance analysis of walking on the humanoid robot iCub

Published on Oct 28, 2016

In this video the HeiCub robot performs walking for the first time on level ground, slope up and down and small stairs. The motion is generated by means of a ZMP based pattern generator.

The HeiCub humanoid robot is a reduced version of the iCub humanoid robot located at Heidelberg University, Germany.

 

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HeiCub performing torque balancing with contacts switching

Published on Oct 29, 2016

In this video the HeiCub robot is performing the YOGA++ demo using the same control software developed by IIT as for the full iCub robot as in youtube.com/watch?v=UPOLcE1vwA0

The HeiCub humanoid robot is a reduced version of the iCub humanoid robot located at Heidelberg University, Germany.

 

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Article "Robot Toddlers Show Scientists a Child's Learning Process"

by Jaimee Bruce
November 30, 2016

 

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iCub - Torque-Control Stepping Strategy Push Recovery - IIT

Published on Feb 15, 2017

=== How a robot can avoid to fall? ===

In this video we present the implementation on iCub of a so-called stepping-strategy, whose aim is to recover the robot balance by taking a step.

This approach mimics humans reactions to pushes, but its development resorts to simple models like the Linear Inverted Pendulum.

After the push, the robot understands it is the right moment to start moving, then it places the swing foot in a position computed depending on the perturbation, ensuring the robot won't fall once in double support.

These two informations (the trigger and the foot target position), together with the definition of a Center of Mass trajectory, constitute a planner able to provide references to the Momentum-Based Whole-Body Controller implemented on iCub. Thus, a peculiarity of this approach is the application on a torque controlled robot, providing additional robustness to impacts and foot placement errors, for example.

 

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Robust visual tracking with a freely moving event camera

Published on Mar 1, 2017

The iCub follows the moving target using event-based cameras. A novel event-based particle filter tracks the ball position at over 200Hz.