INSPIRE: Legged Locomotion for Desert Research

INSPIRE：用于沙漠研究的腿式运动

• 批准号: 1514882
• 负责人: Daniel Koditschek
• 金额: $ 100万
• 依托单位: University of Pennsylvania
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Standard Grant
• 财政年份: 2015
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2015-10-01 至 2018-09-30
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=1514882&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: INSPIRE; Legged; Locomotion; Desert; Research

This INSPIRE project is supported by the Directorate of Computer and Information Science and Engineering, the Division of Information and Intelligent Systems, the Directorate of Geosciences, Division of Earth Sciences, and the Office of International and Integrative Activities. Sand and dust storms menace the world. They impact large human populations on nearly every continent, damage habitation, disrupt transportation, threaten agriculture, biodiversity, human health and life, and degrade the environment (desertification). A team of scientists and engineers is developing an autonomous legged robot research assistant, designed to operate within harsh desert environments for purposes of gathering heretofore unavailable measurements of wind and sand movement under conditions far too uncomfortable and dangerous for human presence. These data may offer new insights into dust production and its global effects that could significantly impact predictions of environmental degradation by climate change in drylands. At the same time, meeting the formidable mobility and perceptual capabilities arising from scientists' requirements will advance the foundations and practice of robotics. Ultimately, advances in control of dust emissions from soils made possible by this novel collaboration could prolong the sustainability of the agroecosystem and result in improved air quality of downwind population centers.Dust emission has traditionally been assumed to release sediment previously deposited in soil, but there is growing evidence that sand abrasion may actually produce significant quantities of new dust. Establishing sand seas as dust factories, rather than simply dust reservoirs represents a qualitatively new result that would cascade through aeolian and climate science. But the severe events of interest are hidden from existing conventional instruments and they pose presently insurmountable challenges to flying, wheeled or even tracked vehicles. Aeolian science needs legged machines to negotiate the steep, shifting slopes, and broken ground under the environmental conditions of interest. Steady running over simple terrain is a largely solved problem in robotics, but transitional maneuvers and agile negotiation of geometrically complex, unstable, fragile terrain characteristic of desert substrates pose a daunting next challenge for legged locomotion, requiring new approaches to turning, gait control, and perception.

这个INSPIRE项目得到了计算机和信息科学与工程局、信息和智能系统司、地球科学局、地球科学司以及国际和综合活动办公室的支持。 沙尘暴威胁着世界。它们影响到几乎每个大陆的大量人口，破坏居住环境，扰乱交通，威胁农业、生物多样性、人类健康和生命，并使环境退化（荒漠化）。一个由科学家和工程师组成的团队正在开发一种自主腿机器人研究助理，旨在在恶劣的沙漠环境中工作，以便在人类存在的条件下收集迄今为止无法获得的风和沙运动测量结果。这些数据可能为了解粉尘的产生及其全球影响提供新的见解，从而对旱地气候变化造成的环境退化的预测产生重大影响。与此同时，满足科学家要求的强大移动性和感知能力将推动机器人技术的基础和实践。最终，通过这种新的合作，在控制土壤粉尘排放方面取得的进展可能会延长农业生态系统的可持续性，并改善顺风人口中心的空气质量。传统上认为，粉尘排放会释放先前沉积在土壤中的沉积物，但越来越多的证据表明，沙磨损实际上可能会产生大量新的粉尘。将沙海确定为沙尘工厂，而不仅仅是沙尘库，这代表了一个质的新结果，将通过风成和气候科学级联。但是，感兴趣的严重事件是隐藏在现有的传统仪器，他们提出了目前无法克服的挑战，飞行，轮式甚至履带车辆。 风成科学需要有腿的机器在感兴趣的环境条件下通过陡峭、移动的斜坡和破碎的地面。在简单地形上稳定运行是机器人技术中基本解决的问题，但是过渡机动和沙漠基质的几何复杂，不稳定，脆弱地形特征的敏捷谈判对腿部运动提出了严峻的挑战，需要新的转向方法，步态控制和感知。