Simulation model of general human and humanoid motion

In the last decade we have witnessed a rapid growth of Humanoid Robotics, which has already constituted an autonomous research field. Humanoid robots (or simply humanoids) are expected in all situations of humans’ everyday life, “living” and cooperating with us. They will work in services, in homes, and hospitals, and they are even expected to get involved in sports. Hence, they will have to be capable of doing diverse kinds of tasks. This forces the researchers to develop an appropriate mathematical model to support simulation, design, and control of these systems. Another important fact is that today’s, and especially tomorrow’s, humanoid robots will be more and more humanlike in their shape and behavior. A dynamic model developed for an advanced humanoid robot may become a very useful tool for the dynamic analysis of human motion in different tasks (walking, running and jumping, manipulation, various sports, etc.). So, we derive a general model and talk about a human-and-humanoid simulation system. The basic idea is to start from a human/humanoid considered as a free spatial system (“flier”). Particular problems (walking, jumping, etc.) are then considered as different contact tasks – interaction between the flier and various objects (being either single bodies or separate dynamic systems).     

基于ADAMS的双足机器人拟人行走动态仿真

在双足机器人HEUBR_1的设计中,下肢采用了一种新的串并混联的仿人结构,并在足部增加了足趾关节.为验证该仿人结构设计的合理性及拟人步态规划的可行性,在ADAMS虚拟环境中建立了双足机器人HEUSR_1的仿真模型.通过拟人步态规划生成了运动仿真数据,在ADAMS虚拟环境中实现了具有足趾运动的拟人稳定行走,经仿真分析,获得了双足机器人HEUBR_1拟人行走步态下的运动学和动力学特性,仿真结果表明:双足机器人HEUBR_1的串并混联的仿人结构设计能够满足行走要求,且拟人步态规划方法可行,有足趾运动的拟人行走具有运动平稳、能耗低、足底冲击力小的特点.稳定行走的仿真步态数据可为下一步双足机器人HEUBR_1样机行走实验提供参考数据.     

基于知识的机器人视觉测量分类与进展

提出了基于知识的视觉测量的观点,将传统的立体视觉看作一种基于摄像机知识的视觉测量,并对当前其他的视觉测量方式按所采用知识的不同进行了分类.分别简要介绍了基于点、线、面、统计特性等目标知识的视觉测量,讨论了基于运动知识的视觉测量和基于环境知识的视觉测量.在对视觉测量所采用知识的表达和获取进行初步探讨的基础上,给出了视觉测量的几个值得深入研究的发展方向.     

Design issue of a new iCub head sub-system

I am presenting a new design for the head sub-system of the humanoid robot iCub. ICub is a humanoid robot platform that has been conceived as a result of the development of the European Project RobotCub. Mechanical problems of the current head sub-system of iCub robot have been studied in order to figure out improvements for a new design. The feasibility of the new design has been checked through dynamic simulations of the head operations. The successful results have shown plots with curve evolutions of smooth shapes and suitable values of important kinematic and dynamic parameters of the head structure.     

MAHRU-M: A mobile humanoid robot platform based on a dual-network control system and coordinated task execution

This paper introduces a mobile humanoid robot platform able to execute various services for humans in their everyday environments. For service in more intelligent and varied environments, the control system of a robot must operate efficiently to ensure a coordinated robot system. We enhanced the efficiency of the control system by developing a dual-network control system. The network system consists of two communication protocols: high-speed IEEE 1394, and a highly stable Controller Area Network (CAN). A service framework is also introduced for the coordinated task execution by a humanoid robot. To execute given tasks, various sub-systems of the robot were coordinated effectively by this system. Performance assessments of the presented framework and the proposed control system are experimentally conducted. MAHRU-M, as a platform for a mobile humanoid robot, recognizes the designated object. The object’s pose is calculated by performing model-based object tracking using a particle filter with back projection-based sampling. A unique approach is used to solve the human-like arm inverse kinematics, allowing the control system to generate smooth trajectories for each joint of the humanoid robot. A mean-shift algorithm using bilateral filtering is also used for real-time and robust object tracking. The results of the experiment show that a robot can execute its services efficiently in human workspaces such as an office or a home.     

基于能效优化的仿人机器人跑步步态优化与控制

针对高能耗导致的仿人机器人难以大规模实用化的问题,提出了一种新的仿人机器人参数化跑步步态优化方法。分析了不同跑步步态参数对仿人机器人水平、垂直方向的稳定性及能耗的影响,将机器人步态优化问题转化为对步态参数的多目标寻优问题,根据连杆模型得到机器人跑步过程中水平、垂直方向的稳定裕度及能耗表达式,并构造目标函数,采用基于对位学习的遗传算法对机器人参数化跑步步态进行多目标寻优,在保证机器人俯仰、翻滚和偏摆各方向力矩平衡的前提下降低整体能量消耗;针对传统遗传算法早熟及收敛速度慢的问题,提出基于领域知识的精细化初始成员策略,采取生成种群成员对位点的方式更新种群,以加快收敛速度;为提高轨迹跟踪性能,设计了自适应控制器,并给出了稳定性证明。仿真实验表明:该方法能有效降低能耗并保证其稳定性。     

Iterative learning of grasp adaptation through human corrections

In the context of object interaction and manipulation, one characteristic of a robust grasp is its ability to comply with external perturbations applied to the grasped object while still maintaining the grasp. In this work, we introduce an approach for grasp adaptation which learns a statistical model to adapt hand posture solely based on the perceived contact between the object and fingers. Using a multi-step learning procedure, the model dataset is built by first demonstrating an initial hand posture, which is then physically corrected by a human teacher pressing on the fingertips, exploiting compliance in the robot hand. The learner then replays the resulting sequence of hand postures, to generate a dataset of posture-contact pairs that are not influenced by the touch of the teacher. A key feature of this work is that the learned model may be further refined by repeating the correction-replay steps. Alternatively, the model may be reused in the development of new models, characterized by the contact signatures of a different object. Our approach is empirically validated on the iCub robot. We demonstrate grasp adaptation in response to changes in contact, and show successful model reuse and improved adaptation with additional rounds of model refinement.     

Integrating a flexible anthropomorphic, robot hand into the control, system of a humanoid robot

This article presents the approaches taken to integrate a novel anthropomorphic robot hand into a humanoid robot. The requisites enabling such a robot hand to use everyday objects in an environment built for humans are presented. Starting from a design that resembles the human hand regarding size and movability of the mechatronical system, a low-level control system is shown providing reliable and stable controllers for single joint angles and torques, entire fingers and several coordinated fingers. Further on, the high-level control system connecting the low-level control system with the rest of the humanoid robot is presented. It provides grasp skills to the superior robot control system, coordinates movements of hand and arm and determines grasp patterns, depending on the object to grasp and the task to execute. Finally some preliminary results of the system, which is currently tested in simulations, will be presented.     

Human-like natural behavior generation based on involuntary motions for humanoid robots

Human behaviors consist of both voluntary and involuntary motions. Almost all behaviors of task-oriented robots, however, consist solely of voluntary motions. Involuntary motions are important for generating natural motions like those of humans. Thus, we propose a natural behavior generation method for humanoid robots that is a hybrid generation between voluntary and involuntary motions. The key idea of our method is to control robots with a hybrid controller that combines the functions of a communication behavior controller and body balancing controllers. We also develop a wheeled inverted pendulum type of humanoid robot, named “Robovie-III”, in order to generate involuntary motions like oscillation. By applying our method to this robot and conducting preliminary experiments, we verify its validity. Experimental results show that the robot generates both voluntary and involuntary motions.     

CAN总线在仿人机器人运动控制系统中的应用

文章先对CAN总线进行了介绍，然后把CAN总线应用到仿人机器人中，设计出一种适合仿人机器人的分布式运动控制系统，并给出了详细的设计过程。整个控制系统层次清晰，结构灵活，对仿人机器人的进一步发展具有积极的作用，同时为现场总线在仿人机器人中的应用提供了重要的参考。