Vertical Jumping for Legged Robot Based on Quadratic Programming

Abstract

The highly dynamic legged jumping motion is a challenging research topic because of the lack of established control schemes that handle over-constrained control objectives well in the stance phase, which are coupled and affect each other, and control robot’s posture in the flight phase, in which the robot is underactuated owing to the foot leaving the ground. This paper introduces an approach of realizing the cyclic vertical jumping motion of a planar simplified legged robot that formulates the jump problem within a quadratic-programming (QP)-based framework. Unlike prior works, which have added different weights in front of control tasks to express the relative hierarchy of tasks, in our framework, the hierarchical quadratic programming (HQP) control strategy is used to guarantee the strict prioritization of the center of mass (CoM) in the stance phase while split dynamic equations are incorporated into the unified quadratic-programming framework to restrict the robot’s posture to be near a desired constant value in the flight phase. The controller is tested in two simulation environments with and without the flight phase controller, the results validate the flight phase controller, with the HQP controller having a maximum error of the CoM in the x direction and y direction of 0.47 and 0.82 cm and thus enabling the strict prioritization of the CoM.

Design of the Water Strider-Like Robot

“…The researchers provided the computer simulation to study the forces [3][4][5] that hold water striders on the surface of the water. They concluded that to allow the designed object to move and jump on the surface of the water without the risk of drowning, they need to apply superhydrophobic material or material whose surface is not wetted by water [6].…”

Jumping Motion Based on Momentum Optimization Control and Differential Dynamic Programming for a Multilocomotion Robot

“…The innovation of the controller is as follows: Different from ref. [12–17], the controller takes into account the influence of arm swing on the jumping motion. Linear momentum and angular momentum are coordinated and optimized in the controller to control the speed of COM. The controller adjusts the posture of the robot during the flight phase to prepare for a smooth landing. …”

“…Different from ref. [12–17], the controller takes into account the influence of arm swing on the jumping motion.…”

“…Tian et al proposed an optimization framework for upward jumping motion based on quadratic programming, which can simultaneously consider constraints such as ZMP, antislippage, and the limitation of angular accelerations. [17] However, the influence of upper limb movement on balance and angular momentum is not considered.…”

“…1) Different from ref. [12][13][14][15][16][17], the controller takes into account the influence of arm swing on the jumping motion. 2) Linear momentum and angular momentum are coordinated and optimized in the controller to control the speed of COM.…”