Walking Posture Adaptation for Legged Robot Navigation in Confined Spaces

Buchanan, Russell; Bandyopadhyay, Tirthankar; Bjelonic, Marko; Wellhausen, Lorenz; Hutter, Marco; Kottege, Navinda

doi:10.1109/lra.2019.2899664

Cited by 55 publications

(45 citation statements)

References 28 publications

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“…Once the SDF is generated, it can be queried for collisions in constant time. In our previous work (Buchanan et al, 2019), we used CHOMP and SDFs to plan a robot's body height and leg span in confined spaces. We assumed, however, flat terrain and did not plan for the footholds of the robot nor the robot's 6DOF pose.…”

Section: Related Workmentioning

confidence: 99%

Perceptive whole‐body planning for multilegged robots in confined spaces

Buchanan

Wellhausen

Bjelonic

et al. 2020

Journal of Field Robotics

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Legged robots are exceedingly versatile and have the potential to navigate complex, confined spaces due to their many degrees of freedom. As a result of the computational complexity, there exist no online planners for perceptive whole‐body locomotion of robots in tight spaces. In this paper, we present a new method for perceptive planning for multilegged robots, which generates body poses, footholds, and swing trajectories for collision avoidance. Measurements from an onboard depth camera are used to create a three‐dimensional map of the terrain around the robot. We randomly sample body poses then smooth the resulting trajectory while satisfying several constraints, such as robot kinematics and collision avoidance. Footholds and swing trajectories are computed based on the terrain, and the robot body pose is optimized to ensure stable locomotion while not colliding with the environment. Our method is designed to run online on a real robot and generate trajectories several meters long. We first tested our algorithm in several simulations with varied confined spaces using the quadrupedal robot ANYmal. We also simulated experiments with the hexapod robot Weaver to demonstrate applicability to different legged robot configurations. Then, we demonstrated our whole‐body planner in several online experiments both indoors and in realistic scenarios at an emergency rescue training facility. ANYmal, which has a nominal standing height of 80 cm and a width of 59 cm, navigated through several representative disaster areas with openings as small as 60 cm. Three‐meter trajectories were replanned with 500 ms update times.

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Section: Related Workmentioning

confidence: 99%

Perceptive whole‐body planning for multilegged robots in confined spaces

Buchanan

Wellhausen

Bjelonic

et al. 2020

Journal of Field Robotics

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“…A recent study in [15] used a deformable box robot model to plan paths to both avoid overhead and floor obstacles and fit in narrow spaces by modifying the width and height of the robot. This was presented for legged-only motion for obstacle avoidance/negotiation and didnt consider the cost of modifying the robot polygon.…”

Section: Related Workmentioning

confidence: 99%

Agile Legged-Wheeled Reconfigurable Navigation Planner Applied on the CENTAURO Robot

Raghavan

Kanoulas

Caldwell

et al. 2020

2020 IEEE International Conference on Robotics and Automation (ICRA)

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Hybrid legged-wheeled robots such as the CEN-TAURO, are capable of varying their footprint polygon to carry out various agile motions. This property can be advantageous for wheeled-only planning in cluttered spaces, which is our focus. In this paper, we present an improved algorithm that builds upon our previously introduced preliminary footprint varying A* planner, which was based on the rectangular symmetry of the foot support polygon. In particular, we introduce a Theta* based planner with trapezium-like search, which aims to further reduce the limitations imposed upon the wheeled-only navigation of the CENTAURO robot by the low-dimensional search space, maintaining the real-time computational efficiency. The method is tested on the simulated and real full-size CENTAURO robot in cluttered environments.

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“…The simple command interface for sending velocity control to the system enabled higher level autonomy to be integrated and tested onto hardware easily. Research in probing for brittle terrain [2], steep terrain ascent [16], adapting robot pose for confined spaces [17], augmented telepresence for remote inspection [18] and autonomous adaptation of locomotion parameters [19]- [21] have all built upon the OpenSHC framework.…”

Section: Design Philosophymentioning

confidence: 99%

OpenSHC: A Versatile Multilegged Robot Controller

et al. 2020

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Multilegged robots have the ability to perform stable locomotion on relatively rough terrain. However, the complexity of legged robots over wheeled or tracked robots make them difficult to control. This paper presents OpenSHC (Open-source Syropod High-level Controller), a versatile high-level controller capable of generating gaits and poses for quasi-static multilegged robots, both simulated and with real hardware implementations. With full Robot Operating System (ROS) integration, the controller can be quickly deployed on robots with different actuators and sensor payloads. The flexibility of OpenSHC is demonstrated on the 30 degrees of freedom hexapod Bullet, analysing the energetic performance of various leg configurations, kinematic arrangements and gaits over different locomotion speeds. With OpenSHC being easily configured to different physical and locomotion specifications, a hardware-based parameter space search for optimal locomotion parameters is conducted. The experimental evaluation shows that the mammalian configuration offers lower power consumption across a range of step frequencies; with the insectoid configuration providing performance advantages at higher body velocities and increased stability at low step frequencies. OpenSHC is open-source and able to be configured for various number of joints and legs.

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Walking Posture Adaptation for Legged Robot Navigation in Confined Spaces

Cited by 55 publications

References 28 publications

Perceptive whole‐body planning for multilegged robots in confined spaces

Perceptive whole‐body planning for multilegged robots in confined spaces

Agile Legged-Wheeled Reconfigurable Navigation Planner Applied on the CENTAURO Robot

OpenSHC: A Versatile Multilegged Robot Controller

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