NRI: A Novel Framework for the Hardware and Control Co-design of Dynamic Humanoid Robots with Electric Motors

四足机器人现在正在做真正的工作，包括勘探废弃矿井，检查发电厂，在崎岖地形上运输有效载荷等等。最近从研究平台到有用机器人的显著转变是由强大、廉价和广泛使用的电动机的基本创新实现的。但四足机器人不能使用为人类创造的工具，也不能在为拟人化形式设计的环境中工作，比如狭窄的走廊或爬梯。相反，有能力的人形机器人可以帮助防止美国消防员、护士或仓库工人的反复受伤和残疾，并每年节省数十亿美元的医疗保健费用。人形机器人的机械结构和运动控制要比四足机器人复杂得多，这是阻碍其广泛应用的根本挑战。该项目将通过正式和系统的设计过程，将使四足机器人取得显著成功的技术转化为具有物理能力的类人机器人，从而缩小这一差距。本项目制造的机器人Dash将完成跑步、举重等运动任务，其性能可与人类媲美。该机器人将开源，以降低进入研究的门槛，建立一个通用的基准性能平台，加速人形机器人的研究进展，并加快其在美国向有用工具的过渡。该项目将创建一个集成框架，用于共同设计具有电动机的人形机器人的硬件和控制，以最大限度地提高其物理能力。该项目的主要基础科学是动态类人机器人集成的整体框架，该框架的核心是一种可扩展到多任务的新型协同设计优化公式。这项工作的三个基本科学贡献扩大了这一公式的变革性质：(i)推导出适合动态类人机器人的性能指标和设计原则；创造有效的计算工具来模拟和确定这些机器人所使用的复杂机构；（iii）扩展动态全身控制技术以解决自碰撞问题。开源人形机器人Dash将与该框架集成，以实现高要求的物理任务，包括跑步、举重和携带大量有效载荷。从这项研究中吸取的经验教训将通过创建一门由pi共同教授的动态机器人设计和控制课程反映在教育中。该奖项反映了美国国家科学基金会的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的知识价值和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。

Quadruped robots are now doing real work including exploration of abandoned mines, inspection of power plants, transportation of payloads on rough terrain, and more. The remarkable recent transition from research platforms to useful robots was enabled by fundamental innovations on powerful, inexpensive, and widely available electric motors. But quadrupedal robots cannot use tools created for humans or work in environments designed for the anthropomorphic form, such as narrow corridors or climbing ladders. Instead, capable humanoid robots could help prevent the recurrent injuries and disabilities of firefighters, nurses, or warehouse workers in the US, and save billions of dollars on health care each year. The fundamental challenge preventing the advent of widely adopted humanoid robots is that their mechanical structure and motion control are significantly more complex than those of quadrupedal robots. This project will close this gap by translating the technology that enabled the remarkable success of quadruped robots to the creation of physically capable humanoid robots via a formal and systematic design process. The robot Dash fabricated in this project will realize athletic tasks, such as running and powerlifting, with a performance comparable to humans. The robot will be open-sourced to lower the barrier to entry for research, establish a common platform for benchmarking performance, accelerate the research progress on humanoid robots, and expedite their transition to useful tools in the US.This project will create an integration framework for the co-design of the hardware and control of humanoid robots with electric motors to maximize their physical capabilities. The main fundamental science of this project is a holistic framework for robot integration of dynamic humanoids and at the core of this framework is a novel co-design optimization formulation that is scalable to multiple tasks. The transformative nature of this formulation is amplified by three fundamental scientific contributions of this work: (i) Derivation of performance metrics and design principles tailored to dynamic humanoid robots; (ii) Creation of efficient computational tools for simulation and identification of the complex mechanisms employed by these robots; And (iii) extension of dynamic whole-body control techniques to address self-collision. The open-source humanoid robot Dash will be integrated with this framework for realizing demanding physical tasks including running, powerlifting, and carrying a substantial payload. The lessons learned from this research will be reflected in education through the creation of a course on the design and control of dynamic robots jointly taught by the PIs.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.