EAGER/Collaborative Research: Center-of-Mass Control for Expressive and Effective Movement in Bipedal Robots

这个早期概念探索性研究奖助金(AGER)合作项目将应用对人类运动员和舞者的研究的见解，使类人机器人能够进行同样有效和富有表现力的运动。目标是在不复制人体躯干的全部复杂性和关节的情况下，创造出这种运动的能力。具体地说，该项目将实施一种新的机制，用于移动沉重的质量，使用新的肌肉状致动器独立于肢体运动来移动机器人的重心，并基于为舞蹈、体育和物理治疗开发的正式运动分析系统来评估结果。除了提高机器人完成移动即步行步态的效率外，这些功能还将为机器人与人类之间的交流提供新的渠道，即调节步行步态的风格。人类通过观察运动来对态度和意图进行无意识的推断。例如，如果机器人同事的动作向人类合作伙伴传达了可信度和能力，那么它就会更有效；如果机器人的动作能在紧急情况下传达信心和领导力，那么机器人第一反应者就会更有效。该项目将艺术和技术的相互作用融入到推广活动中，例如使用舞蹈动作来了解机器人运动的基本原理。这个项目采用了一种新的方法来在类人机器人中产生动态行走，通过利用一种新颖的、位于核心位置的滚动球和托盘驱动机构的动力学，该机构源于对具身运动理论的探索。执行器的阻抗实时变化，调节机器人的动态以产生本质上不同的激励。该项目的重点是控制机器人步态的表现力特征，并与人类的运动进行明确的比较。该项目的目标是探索质心控制在人类行走中的作用，并通过建模、仿真和初始原型来论证该方法在两足机器人行走中的可行性。这项工作将通过一组根据巴特涅夫基本原理设计的运动基元来对球和托盘执行器进行建模和验证，巴特涅夫基本原理是一种正式的运动分析系统。研究小组汇集了运动科学、动态行走和肌肉样驱动方面的专家。除了提高机器人的性能外，这项工作还有可能增加机器人与人类之间的通信带宽。富有表现力的动作可以传达许多不同的情感背景，包括紧迫感、冷静、热情、自信等等。将这些背景设计成机器人运动的能力在人类面对的场景中有许多潜在的应用。

This EArly-concept Grant for Exploratory Research (EAGER) collaborative project will apply insights from the study of human athletes and dancers to enable similarly effective and expressive movement in humanoid robots. The objective is to create the capability for such movement without duplicating the full complexity and articulation of the human torso. Specifically, the project will implement a novel mechanism for shifting a heavy mass that shifts the robot center of mass independently of limb movements using novel muscle-like actuators, and evaluate the results based on a formal system of movement analysis developed for dance, athletics, and physical therapy. In addition to improving the robot's effectiveness at accomplishing locomotion, i.e., a walking gait, these capabilities will provide new channels for communication between robots and humans, i.e., modulating the style of the walking gait. Humans make unconscious inferences about attitude and intent from observing movement. For example, a robot co-worker will be more effective if its movements communicate trustworthiness and competence to its human partners, and a robot first-responder will be more effective if its movements communicate confidence and leadership during an emergency situation. This project incorporates the interplay of art and technology into outreach activities, such as using dance movements to understand fundamentals of robot locomotion. This project takes a novel approach to generating dynamic walking in a humanoid robot, by exploiting the dynamics of a novel, core-located rolling ball-and-tray actuation mechanism arising from exploration of embodied movement theory. The impedance of the actuator is varied in real time, modulating the robot dynamics to produce qualitatively different excitations. The focus of the project is on controlling the expressive character of robot gait, with explicit comparison to human movement. The goals of the project are to explore the role of center-of-mass control in human walking and to demonstrate the feasibility of the approach for bipedal robotic walking through modeling, simulation, and an initial prototype. The work will model and validate the ball-and-tray actuator via a set of motion primitives designed in accordance with Bartenieff Fundamentals, a formal system of movement analysis. The research team brings together experts in movement science, dynamic walking, and muscle-like actuation. In addition to improving robot performance, this work has the potential to increase the bandwidth of robot-human communications. Expressive movement can convey many different emotional contexts, including urgency, calm, enthusiasm, confidence, et cetera. The ability to engineer these contexts into robot movement has many potential applications in human facing scenarios.