CAREER: Hybrid Locomotion Systems for Varying Terrains and Environments

该奖项解决了混合机器人运动系统的问题——利用多种运动模式以实现更大移动性的机器人系统。这些系统的例子包括轮式机器人使用手臂或腿来行走或爬楼梯，或者使用尾巴来在地下隧道或管道中提供游泳推力或支撑力。这种系统可以提供能够在多种环境下操作的机器人平台，例如水下、管道或陆地。这项研究的核心是如何为混合机器人运动系统生成适当的输入模式或步态，以及如何在不同环境（如陆地到水）之间移动时修改这些步态。其他问题包括地形难度和机器人系统机动性的发展措施。这些将提供一个给定的机器人配置的机动性的特征与路径的难度，它必须遵循通过环境。传感的问题，环境和接触力作用于机器人，将被解决。模块化组件的使用也将被强调，以提供基本模块，如腿，尾巴和轮子，可以快速配置成一个完整的机器人系统。使用模块化组件，这项研究的实验方面将重点放在三个基本机器人平台的开发上：蝾螈机器人、轮腿系统和鳗鱼机器人。这些系统中的每一个都有可能拥有先进的运动和操作能力，远远超过现有的机器人系统。教育计划包括建立可视化工具和图形动画，以帮助研究生通过插图理解困难的概念。将建立一个网站，与世界各地的教育工作者分享这些工具。在本科阶段，研究将通过高级设计项目和新成立的宾夕法尼亚大学机器人俱乐部与教育相结合。在初中和高中阶段，现有的机器人指导计划将通过引入基于互联网的移动机器人和相关的短期课程模块来加强。

This award addresses issues of hybrid robotic locomotion systems --- robotic systems that utilize multiplelocomotion modalities in order to achieve greater mobility. Examples of these systems include the use of arms or legs by a wheeled robot to walk or climb stairs, or the use of a tail by a legge&robot to provide swimming thrust or bracing forces in underground tunnels or pipes. Such systems can provide robotic platforms capable of operating in multiple environments, such as underwater, in pipes, or overland. Central to this researchis how to generate appropriate input patterns, or gaits, for hybrid robotic locomotion systems, and how to modify these gaits when moving between environments, such as land to water. Other issues include the development of measures of terrain difficulty and mobility for robotic systems. These would provide a characterization of the mobility of a given robot configuration in relation to the difficulty of the path it must follow through the environment. Issues of sensing, both of the environment and of contact forces actingon the robot, will be addressed. The use of modular components will also be emphasized, in order to provide basic modules, such as legs, tails, and wheels, that can be rapidly configured into a complete robotic system. Using modular components, the experimental side of this research will, focus on the development of three basic robotic platforms: a salamander, a wheel-legged system, and an eel robot. Each of these systems willpotentially possess advanced locomotion and manipulation capabilities that greatly exceed those found in existing robotic systems.The education plan includes building visualization tools and graphics animation to help graduate students understanding difficult concepts by illustration. A website will be established for sharing such tools with educators around the world. At the undergraduate level, research will be integrated into education through senior design projects and the newly formed Penn Robotics Club. At the middle and high school level, an existing robotics mentoring program will be strengthened by introducing an internet-based mobile robot, with associated short-course modules.