Control and Motion Planning for Compliant Humanoid Robots

该研究计划的目标是开发有能力，灵活，高效的人形机器人。尽管在过去的十年里，其他研究人员和我本人取得了巨大的进步，但我们仍然远离可以充当消防员或照顾老人的人形机器人。挑战之一是机器人的运动和操纵能力。在平坦的表面上行走已经有了显著的改善。例如，2007年，呼罗杯马拉松项目的世界纪录是38分钟42米; 2014年，世界纪录是45分钟240米。 该提案旨在研究设计、实现和控制类人机器人的全新方法。目前大多数人形机器人的设计都是基于刚性结构：刚性连杆连接到齿轮箱和电动机。这些设计适用于结构化环境中的缓慢移动，因此可以预测或完全避免机器人，环境和人类之间的影响。所以现在的类人机器人只能慢慢地走路或慢跑。 然而，与人类类似，在崎岖的地形上行走，跳跃，软着陆，攀爬和跑步机器人必须吸收大的冲击，并能够在稍后阶段储存能量进行短暂的爆发。在我们的研究中，我们在机器人的设计中引入了一定的顺应性，使其具有灵活性。为此，我们用软材料取代刚性连接，并添加弹簧用于短期储能。 改变机器人的设计只是第一步。新方法需要修改低级电机控制器、主动平衡和推动恢复算法以及运动规划器。不能孤立地看待这些系统，因为低级电机控制器确定运动规划器具有哪些可用信息，并且运动规划器需要将正确的控制目标发送到低级电机控制器，同时机器人始终是动态稳定和平衡的。我们计划自动识别电机控制器的控制区域，这些控制区域可以被运动控制器和平衡算法用作垫脚石。嵌入式处理能力的最新进展以及对步行步态和平衡反射的更好理解使这种方法成为可能。 这项研究的直接结果将导致更快的运动，更灵巧的操作和更安全的机器人设计。从长远来看，即将到来的机器人革命将影响几乎所有人，甚至超过PC和互联网革命，因为计算机将能够操纵不仅是虚拟的，而且是物理世界。这项研究将导致跨学科问题解决者的培训，能够开发复杂的计算机程序，电子和机器人设计。这些技能在新的“创客经济”中至关重要。"

The goal of this research program is the development of capable, flexible, and efficient humanoid robots. In spite of the great advances that other researchers and myself have achieved in the last decade, we are still far away from humanoid robots that can act as firemen or care for the elderly. One of the challenges are the locomotion and manipulation capabilities of the robots. Significant improvements have been made in walking on flat, even surfaces. For example, in 2007, the world record in the marathon event of HuroCup was 42 meters in 38 minutes; in 2014, the world record was 240 meter in 45 minutes. This proposal aims at investigating radically new approaches to the design, implementation, and control of humanoid robots. The majority of current humanoid robot designs are based on stiff structures: stiff links connected to gear boxes and electric motors. These designs work well for slow movements in structured environments, so that impacts between robots, environment, and humans can be predicted or entirely avoided. So nowadays humanoid robots can only walk or jog slowly. However, - similar to humans - walking over rough terrain, jumping, soft landing, climbing, and running robots must absorb large impacts and be able to store energy for short bursts at a later stage. In our research, we introduce some compliance into the design of the robots, so that are flexible. To this end, we replace stiff links with soft materials and add springs for short term energy storage. Changes in the design of the robot are only the first step. The new approach requires modifications to the low-level motor controllers, the active balancing and push recovery algorithms, and the motion planner. These systems cannot be looked at in isolation, since the low-level motor controllers determine what information the motion planner has available and the motion planner needs to send the correct control targets to the low-level motor controllers, all the while the robot is dynamically stable and balanced. We plan to automatically identify regions of control for the motor controllers that can be used as stepping stones by the motion controller and balancing algorithms. Recent advances in embedded processing power and better understanding of walking gaits and balancing reflexes have made this approach possible. The immediate outcome of this research will lead to faster locomotion, more dexterous manipulation, and safer robot designs. Long term, the coming robot revolution will affect almost everyone, even more than the PC and Internet revolution as computers will then be able to manipulate not just the virtual, but also the physical world. The research will result in the training of inter-disciplinary problem solvers that are able to develop sophisticated computer programs, electronics, and robot designs. These skills are crucially important in the new "Maker economy."