Examining robustness of bipedal robot walking with artificial sensitive skin

由于浮基系统的自然不稳定性，拟人机器人的平衡和运动是一项具有挑战性的任务。该项目“检查双足机器人与人工敏感皮肤行走的鲁棒性”旨在使人形机器人能够在不平坦和狭窄的地形上行走，更强大的人工敏感皮肤。这将通过开发一个基于操作系统的软件控制框架得到支持。人的脚底覆盖着一层耐用的无毛皮肤，除了保护脚免受粗糙表面的影响外，还提供了关于地形的丰富感觉信息，如质地，硬度，温度和立足点上的压力分布。今天，大多数类人机器人只配备了踝关节扭矩力传感器，它们在运动时不能考虑任何类型的表面接触（任何类型的接触几何）。为了使人形机器人更好地应用于人类环境，需要能够在各种地面和表面上行走和平衡。在认知系统研究所近年来开发的机器人皮肤的帮助下，开发出了在脚底安装皮肤传感器的人形机器人。人工触觉传感器可以提供关于物理相互作用力的空间信息。这样的信息对于提高机器人系统和控制方法的能力是有用的。这个项目的重点是调查的好处，足底触觉连续行走控制提供。机器人皮肤的不同的传感方式将被检查在不平坦的地形上行走在两个不同的步行控制器没有显着的修改将是目标。我们将研究如何皮肤信息可以用来适应在线的步行运动踩在意想不到的障碍物，特别是在小尺寸/狭窄的立足点的情况下。将研究用于先发制人的足部顺应性的足底接近感测的使用，这可以提供一种感测模态，该感测模态可以使得足部能够在足部着陆之前使用与地面的接近度作为控制的参考来调整其取向。该框架将在两个不同的全尺寸人形机器人上进行测试，这些机器人运行在两个不同的步行控制器上。

Humanoid robot's biped balance and locomotion is a challenging task due to the naturally unstable dynamics of floating base systems. The project “Examining robustness of bipedal robot walking with artificial sensitive skin” aims at enabling humanoid robots to walk over uneven and narrow terrains more robustly with artificial sensitive skin. This will be supported by the development of a ROS-based software control framework. The human foot sole is covered with an endurable layer of glabrous skin that apart from protecting the foot from rough surfaces, provides rich sensorial information about the terrain such as texture, hardness, temperature, and pressure distribution on the foothold. Today, most humanoids robots are only equipped with ankle joint torque-force sensors, they cannot account for any kind of surface contact (any kind of contact geometry) when making movements. If humanoid robots are to be used more in environments made for human beings, they need to be able to walk, balance on various kinds of ground and surfaces.With the help of the robotic skin developed by the Institute for Cognitive Systems over the past years, a humanoid robot equipped with skin sensors on the sole of its feet has been developed. The artificial tactile sensors can provide spatial information on the physical interaction forces. Such information can be useful to improve the capabilities of robotic systems and control methods. This project focuses on the investigation of the benefits that plantar tactile sensation provides for continuous walking control. Different sensing modalities of robot skin will be examined for walking on uneven terrain in two different walking controllers without significant modifications will be the target. We will investigate how skin information can be used to adapt online the walking motions for stepping on unexpected obstacles, especially in the case of small-size/narrow footholds. The use of plantar proximity sensing for pre-emptive foot compliance will be investigated, which could provide a sensing modality that may enable the foot to adapt its orientation before foot landing using the proximity-to-ground as a reference for control. The framework will be tested in two different full-size humanoid robots running on two different walking controllers.