Myon: Concepts and Design of a Modular Humanoid Robot Which Can Be Reassembled During Runtime

Abstract

We describe the design concepts of the modular humanoid robot Myon, which can be disassembled and reassembled during runtime. The body parts are fully autonomous in a threefold sense: they all possess their own energy supply, processing power, and a neural network topology which allows for stand-alone operation of single limbs. The robot has especially been designed for robustness and easy maintenance. It exhibits a combination of an endoskeleton with an exoskeleton, the latter of which can manually be detached without the need for technical equipment. One of the essential parts is a novel flange which firmly connects the body parts mechanically, whilst at the same time relaying the power supply lines and sensorimotor signals. We also address the details of the antagonistic and compliant actuation system which not only protects the gears against high impact forces but also enables biologically inspired joint control.

Language Grounding in Robots

“…Desirably, these limits have to be estimated during phases of selfexploration and have to be learned and memorized for future use (Hild and Kubisch, 2011;Hild et al, 2011a;Kubisch et al, 2010). But for now and in the absence of a sophisticated learning algorithm, a simple way to deal with joint limits is to manually identify the maximum angular positions and set the CSL into release mode when a joint limit is reached.…”

“…The equation is (3.5) where A ∈ R n×n symmetric, b ∈ R n , and c ∈ R. This notation is advantageous if you need to identify the eigenvalues and eigenvectors of A. For more information why this works well for different sensor qualities and especially for robot joint configurations, see Hild et al (2011a). We use a different notation for the quadric more suitable for the task:…”

BALANCE RECOVERY OF A HUMANOID ROBOT USING COGNITIVE SENSORIMOTOR LOOPS (CSLs)

“…When the hip, knee, and ankle joints are each controlled by local CSLs in contraction mode, then a complex behavioral sequence emerges, as outlined in Figures 3 and 4. First, only ankle, knee, and the mass touch the ground, so the hip joint experiences load and starts to contract (1)(2). This lifts the knee from the ground, so the knee joint also starts to contract (3).…”

“…In the paper at hand we will extend the notion of Cognitive Sensorimotor Loops (CSLs) 1 and use them for motion creation and balance recovery on the modular humanoid robot Myon. 2 For this, the structure is as follows: On the basis of the CSL described in Section 2, we will show how a single robot leg can perform a complex stand-up motion with the use of multiple independent joint controllers (Section 3). Here, we also demonstrate that the CSLs enable a humanoid robot to stabilize its upright standing and recover balance after disturbances, e. g. pushes or changing slopes.…”

The Distributed Architecture for Large Neural Networks (Distal) of the Humanoid Robot Myon

“…Besides the camera, there are over 200 sensor values of the following types: joint angle, motor angle, motor current, motor temperature, acceleration force, contact force, battery voltage. The mechanical construction, energy supply concept and other hardware aspects are detailed in (Hild et al, 2011b).…”