Walking trajectory generation & control of the humanoid robot: suralp

In recent years, the operational area of the robots started to extend and new functionalities are planned for them in our daily environments. As the human-robot interaction is being improved, the robots can provide support in elderly care, human assistance, rescue, hospital attendance and many other areas. With this motivation, an intensive research is focused around humanoid robotics in the last four decades. However, due to the nonlinear dynamics of the robot and high number of degrees of freedom, the robust balance of the bipedal walk is a challenging task. Smooth trajectory generation and online compensation methods are necessary to achieve a stable walk. In this thesis, Cartesian foot position references are generated as periodic functions with respect to a body-fixed coordinate frame. The online adjustment of these parameterized trajectories provides an opportunity in tuning the walking parameters without stopping the robot. The major contribution of this thesis in the context of trajectory generation is the smoothening of the foot trajectories and the introduction of ground push motion in the vertical direction. This pushing motion provided a dramatic improvement in the stability of the walking. Even though smooth foot reference trajectories are generated using the parameter based functions, the realization of a dynamically stable walk and maintenance of the robot balance requires walking control algorithms. This thesis introduces various control techniques to cope with disturbances or unevenness of the walking environment and compensate the mismatches between the planned and the actual walking based on sensory feedback. Moreover, an automatic homing procedure is proposed for the adjustment of the initial posture before the walking experiments. The presented control algorithms include ZMP regulation, foot orientation control, trunk orientation control, foot pitch torque difference compensation, body pitch angle correction, ground impact compensation and early landing modification. The effectiveness of the proposed trajectory generation and walking control algorithms is tested on the humanoid robot SURALP and a stable walk is achieved

Humanoid Robots

For many years, the human being has been trying, in all ways, to recreate the complex mechanisms that form the human body. Such task is extremely complicated and the results are not totally satisfactory. However, with increasing technological advances based on theoretical and experimental researches, man gets, in a way, to copy or to imitate some systems of the human body. These researches not only intended to create humanoid robots, great part of them constituting autonomous systems, but also, in some way, to offer a higher knowledge of the systems that form the human body, objectifying possible applications in the technology of rehabilitation of human beings, gathering in a whole studies related not only to Robotics, but also to Biomechanics, Biomimmetics, Cybernetics, among other areas. This book presents a series of researches inspired by this ideal, carried through by various researchers worldwide, looking for to analyze and to discuss diverse subjects related to humanoid robots. The presented contributions explore aspects about robotic hands, learning, language, vision and locomotion

Climbing and Walking Robots

Nowadays robotics is one of the most dynamic fields of scientific researches. The shift of robotics researches from manufacturing to services applications is clear. During the last decades interest in studying climbing and walking robots has been increased. This increasing interest has been in many areas that most important ones of them are: mechanics, electronics, medical engineering, cybernetics, controls, and computers. Today’s climbing and walking robots are a combination of manipulative, perceptive, communicative, and cognitive abilities and they are capable of performing many tasks in industrial and non- industrial environments. Surveillance, planetary exploration, emergence rescue operations, reconnaissance, petrochemical applications, construction, entertainment, personal services, intervention in severe environments, transportation, medical and etc are some applications from a very diverse application fields of climbing and walking robots. By great progress in this area of robotics it is anticipated that next generation climbing and walking robots will enhance lives and will change the way the human works, thinks and makes decisions. This book presents the state of the art achievments, recent developments, applications and future challenges of climbing and walking robots. These are presented in 24 chapters by authors throughtot the world The book serves as a reference especially for the researchers who are interested in mobile robots. It also is useful for industrial engineers and graduate students in advanced study

Development of a Locomotion and Balancing Strategy for Humanoid Robots

The locomotion ability and high mobility are the most distinguished features of humanoid robots. Due to the non-linear dynamics of walking, developing and controlling the locomotion of humanoid robots is a challenging task. In this thesis, we study and develop a walking engine for the humanoid robot, NAO, which is the official robotic platform used in the RoboCup Spl. Aldebaran Robotics, the manufacturing company of NAO provides a walking module that has disadvantages, such as being a black box that does not provide control of the gait as well as the robot walk with a bent knee. The latter disadvantage, makes the gait unnatural, energy inefficient and exert large amounts of torque to the knee joint. Thus creating a walking engine that produces a quality and natural gait is essential for humanoid robots in general and is a factor for succeeding in RoboCup competition. Humanoids robots are required to walk fast to be practical for various life tasks. However, its complex structure makes it prone to falling during fast locomotion. On the same hand, the robots are expected to work in constantly changing environments alongside humans and robots, which increase the chance of collisions. Several human-inspired recovery strategies have been studied and adopted to humanoid robots in order to face unexpected and avoidable perturbations. These strategies include hip, ankle, and stepping, however, the use of the arms as a recovery strategy did not enjoy as much attention. The arms can be employed in different motions for fall prevention. The arm rotation strategy can be employed to control the angular momentum of the body and help to regain balance. In this master\u27s thesis, I developed a detailed study of different ways in which the arms can be used to enhance the balance recovery of the NAO humanoid robot while stationary and during locomotion. I model the robot as a linear inverted pendulum plus a flywheel to account for the angular momentum change at the CoM. I considered the role of the arms in changing the body\u27s moment of inertia which help to prevent the robot from falling or to decrease the falling impact. I propose a control algorithm that integrates the arm rotation strategy with the on-board sensors of the NAO. Additionally, I present a simple method to control the amount of recovery from rotating the arms. I also discuss the limitation of the strategy and how it can have a negative impact if it was misused. I present simulations to evaluate the approach in keeping the robot stable against various disturbance sources. The results show the success of the approach in keeping the NAO stable against various perturbations. Finally,I adopt the arm rotation to stabilize the ball kick, which is a common reason for falling in the soccer humanoid RoboCup competitions

Bio-Inspired Robotics

Modern robotic technologies have enabled robots to operate in a variety of unstructured and dynamically-changing environments, in addition to traditional structured environments. Robots have, thus, become an important element in our everyday lives. One key approach to develop such intelligent and autonomous robots is to draw inspiration from biological systems. Biological structure, mechanisms, and underlying principles have the potential to provide new ideas to support the improvement of conventional robotic designs and control. Such biological principles usually originate from animal or even plant models, for robots, which can sense, think, walk, swim, crawl, jump or even fly. Thus, it is believed that these bio-inspired methods are becoming increasingly important in the face of complex applications. Bio-inspired robotics is leading to the study of innovative structures and computing with sensory–motor coordination and learning to achieve intelligence, flexibility, stability, and adaptation for emergent robotic applications, such as manipulation, learning, and control. This Special Issue invites original papers of innovative ideas and concepts, new discoveries and improvements, and novel applications and business models relevant to the selected topics of ``Bio-Inspired Robotics''. Bio-Inspired Robotics is a broad topic and an ongoing expanding field. This Special Issue collates 30 papers that address some of the important challenges and opportunities in this broad and expanding field

Bipedal humanoid robot control by fuzzy adjustment of the reference walking plane

The two-legged humanoid structure has advantages for an assistive robot in the human living and working environment. A bipedal humanoid robot can avoid typical obstacles at homes and offices, reach consoles and appliances designed for human use and can be carried in human transport vehicles. Also, it is speculated that the absorption of robots in the human shape into the human society can be easier than that of other artificial forms. However, the control of bipedal walk is a challenge. Walking performance on solely even floor is not satisfactory. The complications of obtaining a balanced walk are dramatically more pronounced on uneven surfaces like inclined planes, which are quite commonly encountered in human surroundings. The difficulties lie in a variety of tasks ranging from sensor and data fusion to the design of adaptation systems which respond to changing surface conditions. This thesis presents a study on bipedal walk on inclined planes with changing slopes. A Zero Moment Point (ZMP) based gait synthesis technique is employed. The pitch angle reference for the foot sole plane −as expressed in a coordinate frame attached at the robot body − is adjusted online by a fuzzy logic system to adapt to different walking surface slopes. Average ankle pitch torques and the average value of the body pitch angle, computed over a history of a predetermined number of sampling instants, are used as the inputs to this system. The proposed control method is tested via walking experiments with the 29 degreesof- freedom (DOF) human-sized full-body humanoid robot SURALP (Sabanci University Robotics Research Laboratory Platform). Experiments are performed on even floor and inclined planes with different slopes. The results indicate that the approach presented is successful in enabling the robot to stably enter, ascend and leave inclined planes with 15 percent (8.5 degrees) grade. The thesis starts with a terminology section on bipedal walking and introduces a number of successful humanoid robot projects. A survey of control techniques for the walk on uneven surfaces is presented. The design and construction of the experimental robotic platform SURALP is discussed with the mechanical, electronic, walking reference generation and control aspects. The fuzzy reference adjustment system proposed for the walk on inclined planes is detailed and experimental results are presented

A Robot Operating System (ROS) based humanoid robot control

This thesis presents adapting techniques required to enhance the capability of a commercially available robot, namely, Robotis Bioloid Premium Humanoid Robot (BPHR). BeagleBone Black (BBB), the decision-making and implementing (intelligence providing) component, with multifunctional capabilities is used in this research. Robot operating System (ROS) and its libraries, as well as Python Script and its libraries have been developed and incorporated into the BBB. This fortified BBB intelligence providing component is then transplanted into the structure of the Robotis Bioloid humanoid robot, after removing the latter’s original decision-making and implementing component (controller). Thus, this study revitalizes the Bioloid humanoid robot by converting it into a humanoid robot with multiple features that can be inherited using ROS. This is a first of its kind approach wherein ROS is used as the development framework in conjunction with the main BBB controller and the software impregnated with Python libraries is used to integrate robotic functions. A full ROS computation is developed and a high level Application Programming Interface (API) usable by software utilizing ROS services is also developed. In this revised two-legged-humanoid robot, USB2Dynamixel connector is used to operate the Dynamixel AX-12A actuators through the Wi-Fi interface of the fortified BBB. An accelerometer sensor supports balancing of the robot, and updates data to the BBB periodically. An Infrared (IR) sensor is used to detect obstacles. This dynamic model is used to actuate the motors mounted on the robot leg thereby resulting in a swing-stance period of the legs for a stable forward movement of the robot. The maximum walking speed of the robot is 0.5 feet/second, beyond this limit the robot becomes unstable. The angle at which the robot leans is governed by the feedback from the accelerometer sensor, which is 20 degrees. If the robot tilts beyond a specific degree, then it would come back to its standstill position and stop further movement. When the robot moves forward, the IR sensors sense obstacles in front of the robot. If an obstacle is detected within 35 cm, then the robot stops moving further. Implementation of ROS on top of the BBB (by replacing CM530 controller with the BBB) and using feedback controls from the accelerometer and IR sensor to control the two-legged robotic movement are the novelties of this work

Push Recovery Through Walking Phase Modification for Bipedal Locomotion

Ph.DDOCTOR OF PHILOSOPH

Design of a Walking Assistance Lower Limb Exoskeleton for Paraplegic Patients and Hardware Validation Using CoP

The  design  of  an  assistive  lower  limb exoskeleton  robot  for  paraplegic  patients  that  can measure the centre of pressure is presented. In contrast with most biped walking robots, the centre of pressure (CoP)  or  zero  moment  point  (ZMP)  has  not  been actively used in the operation of exoskeleton robots. In order to  measure  CoP  in  our  exoskeleton robot, two kinds  of  force  sensor  units  are  installed  in  the exoskeleton: low profile force sensors in foot modules to  measure  the  human  weight  transferred  to  the ground and a load cell at the shank frame to measure the supporting force. The CoP of the exoskeleton robot  is  calculated  from  the  above  force  sensors,  an inclinometer at the waist, and the positions of 14 DOF exoskeleton  joints  with  an  algorithm  to  change  the fixed pivot using a foot contact sensor. Experiments on an  able‐bodied  person  wearing  the  designed exoskeleton and walking on the ground are performed to  validate  the  designed  hardware  system.  Through the  experiments,  the  trajectory  of  the  CoP  of  he exoskeleton with a wearer are calculated based on the proposed algorithm and it is compared with the value measured  by  a  commercial  pressure  measurement system.ope

Особенности решения уравнений метода обратной задачи для синтеза устойчивого управляемого движения шагающих роботов

The problem of walking robots controlled motion synthesis by the inverse dynamic method is considered. The inverse dynamic method equations are represented by the methods of multibody system dynamics as free bodies motion equations and constraint equations. The variety of constraint equations group are introduced to specify the robot gait, to implement the robot stability conditions and to coordinate specified robot links movement. The key feature of the inverse dynamic method equations in this formulation is the presence of the second derivatives of the system coordinates in the constraint equations expressing the stability conditions that ensure the maintenance of the vertical position by the robot. The determined solution of such equations in general case is impossible due to the uncertainty of the initial conditions for the Lagrange multipliers. An approximate method for solving the inverse dynamic without taking into account the inertial components in the constraint equations that determine the stability of the robot is considered. Constraint equations that determine the coordinate movement of individual robot links and required for unique problem solving based on approximate equations are presented. The implementation of program motion synthesis methods in the control system of the humanoid robot AR-600 is presented. The comparison of theoretical and experimental parameters of controlled motion is performed. It has been established that with the achieved high accuracy of the robot links tracking drives control with an error of several percent, the indicators of the robot's absolute movements, in particular, the angles of roll, yaw and pitch, differ from the programmed by 30-40%. It’s shown that proposed method allows to synthesize robot control in quasistatic mode for different movement types such as moving forward, sideways, walking on stairs, inclinations etc.Рассматривается задача синтеза управляемого движения шагающих роботов методом обратной задачи. Уравнения метода обратной задачи представляются с помощью методов динамики связанных систем тел, как уравнения движения свободных тел и уравнения связей. Введены различные группы уравнений связей — для задания походки робота, для выполнения условий устойчивости робота и для согласованного движения заданных звеньев робота. Ключевая особенность уравнений метода обратной задачи в такой постановке состоит в наличии вторых производных координат системы в уравнениях связей, обеспечивающих поддержание роботом вертикального положения. Однозначное решение таких уравнений в общем случае невозможно из-за неопределенности начальных условий для множителей Лагранжа. Рассмотрен приближенный метод решения обратной задачи без учета инерционных составляющих в уравнениях связей, определяющих устойчивость робота. Выписаны уравнения связей, которые определяют согласованное движение отдельных звеньев робота и необходимые для однозначного решения задачи на основе приближенных уравнений. Представлена реализация методов синтеза программного движения в системе управления робота андроида АР600. Выполнено сравнение теоретических и экспериментальных показателей управляемого движения. Установлено, что при достигнутой высокой точности управления следящими приводами относительными движениями звеньев робота с погрешностью несколько процентов, показатели абсолютных движений робота, в частности, углы крена, рыскания и тангажа, отличаются от программных на 30-40%. Показано, что предложенный метод позволяет синтезировать управление роботом в квазистатическом режиме для различных типов движений — вперед, вбок, движение по ступенькам, наклоны и так далее