Humanoid robot walking control on inclined planes

The humanoid bipedal structure is suitable for a assitive robot functioning in the human environment. However, the bipedal walk is a difficult control problem. Walking just on even floor is not satisfactory for the applicability of a humanoid robot. This paper presents a study on bipedal walk on inclined planes. A Zero Moment Point (ZMP) based reference generation technique is employed. The orientation of the feet is adjusted online by a fuzzy logic system to adapt to different walking surface slopes. This system uses a sampling time larger than the one of the joint space position controllers. The average value of the body pitch angle is used as the inputs to the fuzzy logic system. A foot pitch orientation compensator implemented independently for the two feet complements the fuzyy controller. A 12-degrees-of-freedom (DOF) biped robot model is used in the full-dynamics 3-D simulations. Simulations are carried out on even floor and inclined planes with different slopes. The results indicate that the control method presented is successful in enabling the robot to climb slopes of 8.5 degrees (15 percent grade)

Gait-Behavior Optimization Considering Arm Swing and Toe Mechanisms for Biped Robot on Rough Road

芝浦工業大学2019年

Learning Agile Bipedal Motions on a Quadrupedal Robot

Can a quadrupedal robot perform bipedal motions like humans? Although developing human-like behaviors is more often studied on costly bipedal robot platforms, we present a solution over a lightweight quadrupedal robot that unlocks the agility of the quadruped in an upright standing pose and is capable of a variety of human-like motions. Our framework is with a bi-level structure. At the low level is a motion-conditioned control policy that allows the quadrupedal robot to track desired base and front limb movements while balancing on two hind feet. The policy is commanded by a high-level motion generator that gives trajectories of parameterized human-like motions to the robot from multiple modalities of human input. We for the first time demonstrate various bipedal motions on a quadrupedal robot, and showcase interesting human-robot interaction modes including mimicking human videos, following natural language instructions, and physical interaction

”Where is your nose?” : developing body awareness skills among children with autism using a humanoid robot

This article describes an exploratory study in which children with autism interact with KASPAR, a humanoid robot, equipped with tactile sensors able to distinguish a gentle from a harsh touch, and to respond accordingly. The study investigated a novel scenario for robot-assisted play, namely to increase body awareness with tasks that taught the children about the identification of human body parts. Based on our analysis of the childrens behaviours while interacting with KASPAR, our results show that the children started looking for a longer period of time to the experimenter, and a lot of interest in touching the robot was observed. They also show that the robot can be considered as a tool for prolonging the attention span of the children, being a social mediator during the interaction between the child and the experimenter. The results are primarily based on the analysis of video data of the interaction. Overall, this first study into teaching children with autism about body parts using a humanoid robot highlighted issues of scenario development, data collection and data analysis that will inform future studies.(undefined

Asimov's Coming Back

Ever since the word ‘ROBOT’ first appeared in a science\ud fiction in 1921, scientists and engineers have been trying\ud different ways to create it. Present technologies in\ud mechanical and electrical engineering makes it possible\ud to have robots in such places as industrial manufacturing\ud and assembling lines. Although they are\ud essentially robotic arms or similarly driven by electrical\ud power and signal control, they could be treated the\ud primitive pioneers in application. Researches in the\ud laboratories go much further. Interdisciplines are\ud directing the evolution of more advanced robots. Among these are artificial\ud intelligence, computational neuroscience, mathematics and robotics. These disciplines\ud come closer as more complex problems emerge.\ud From a robot’s point of view, three basic abilities are needed. They are thinking\ud and memory, sensory perceptions, control and behaving. These are capabilities we\ud human beings have to adapt ourselves to the environment. Although\ud researches on robots, especially on intelligent thinking, progress slowly, a revolution\ud for biological inspired robotics is spreading out in the laboratories all over the world

Simulation and Framework for the Humanoid Robot TigerBot

Walking humanoid robotics is a developing field. Different humanoid robots allow for different kinds of testing. TigerBot is a new full-scale humanoid robot with seven degrees-of-freedom legs and with its specifications, it can serve as a platform for humanoid robotics research. Currently TigerBot has encoders set up on each joint, allowing for position control, and its sensors and joints connect to Teensy microcontrollers and the ODroid XU4 single-board computer central control unit. The components’ communication system used the Robot Operating System (ROS). This allows the user to control TigerBot with ROS. It’s important to have a simulation setup so a user can test TigerBot’s capabilities on a model before using the real robot. A working walking gait in the simulation serves as a test of the simulator, proves TigerBot’s capability to walk, and opens further development on other walking gaits. A model of TigerBot was set up using the simulator Gazebo, which allowed testing different walking gaits with TigerBot. The gaits were generated by following the linear inverse pendulum model and the basic zero-moment point (ZMP) concept. The gaits consisted of center of mass trajectories converted to joint angles through inverse kinematics. In simulation while the robot follows the predetermined joint angles, a proportional-integral controller keeps the model upright by modifying the flex joint angle of the ankles. The real robot can also run the gaits while suspended in the air. The model has shown the walking gait based off the ZMP concept to be stable, if slow, and the actual robot has been shown to air walk following the gait. The simulation and the framework on the robot can be used to continue work with this walking gait or they can be expanded on for different methods and applications such as navigation, computer vision, and walking on uneven terrain with disturbances

Are These Us? A Semiotic View of Mixed Iron-Clay Feet From Daniel 2 in the Age of Artificial Intelligent Technology

This research offers a semiotic interpretation of Daniel’s prophetic \u27mixed iron and clay feet\u27 interpretation from Nebuchadnezzar’s dream. This prophecy may be used to predict a potentially mixed Human-AI culture and its impacts on Christian faith in the age of AI and cyborgs. The Christian faith traditionally has not applied Daniel’s iron-clay feet metaphor to a potentially mixed Human-AI reality. However, I will argue that by employing this semiotic interpretation, we can inform and guide Christ’s Church, which continues to remain grossly unprepared for the questions and challenges raised by a burgeoning Human-AI culture. Knowledge of this topic will prepare the church better to navigate its future. In a potentially blended Human-AI culture, a significant opportunity exists for the Church to define what it means to be fully human and to provide a redemptive, ethical, and theological framework for the benefit of humanity in the new AI technological age. This dissertation suggests how effective Christian faith can be communicated to a blended Human-AI culture with openness, with loving mission, and maintaining the belief that God—the Alpha and the Omega—is always in control no matter how advanced our technology gets. Chapter 1 presents a semiotic analysis of the metallic human statue from Nebuchadnezzar’s dream through Daniel’s interpretation in Dan. 2. This leads the reader into a historical journey through the earthly kingdoms represented by the different metallic portions in that human statue—the gold head, the silver chest and arms, the bronze belly and thigh, the iron legs, and the mixed iron-clay feet. Chapter 2 provides 1) an overview of Biblical scholars’ interpretations of the mixed iron-clay feet metaphor through the historical lens of humanity and 2) a view of the metaphor as a potentially mixed culture between humans and humanoid AI beings, as seen through my own semiotic lens. I will explain why I chose the clay metaphor for human beings and the iron metaphor for humanoid-AI beings and will suggest how this metaphor can be helpful to us today in contemplating our own current and future culture. Chapter 3 discusses the traditional Christian belief in God’s creation and the rise of humanoid-AI beings through the two most applicable stories controversially debated in our time—the story of the Garden of Eden and the story of the computer lab. This chapter supports my traditional Christian belief in the image of God, the matter of flesh, and the matter of the soul in responding to the question of ‘what does it mean to be fully human in the mixed Human-AI culture?’ Chapter 4 further explores the analysis of what it means to be fully human and asks how the ethical framework, the redemptive framework, and the theological framework of Christianity’s rethinking effectively might work in a mixed Humanoid-AI culture. Chapter 5 suggests how Christians can turn cultural challenges into opportunities in order to communicate Christian faith and the gospel with openness and with loving kindness by affirming what it means to be human in responding to the question “Are ‘these’ us?” The chapter will also affirm our faith in an Alpha and Omega God, who is always in control no matter what will happen in a future full of mysteries and brokenness. Chapter 6 will conclude with insights into what I have learned from both science and Christianity that could help us affirm the humanness of humanity in the midst of a potentially mixed Human-AI culture. This chapter will be an open invitation for people to continue discussion into this important area of research and will invite people within the Church today to seek answers for themselves not through human political power, nor through scientific and technological supper intelligence, but through the only Person— the Son of Man and the Son of God—“Jesus Christ who is the same yesterday and today and forever” (Heb. 13:8 NRSV).