State estimation and traversability map construction method of a quadruped robot on soft uneven terrain

Quadruped robots show excellent application prospects in complex environment detection and rescue. At present, scholars mainly focus on quadruped walking in rigid environments. However, quadruped robots often need to pass through uneven and soft unconstructed terrains, prone to slip and impact. The mismatch between the planned foothold position and the real one resulting from environmental uncertainties makes the robot unstable. In this paper, the state estimation and traversability map construction methods are proposed for quadruped robots to achieve stable walking in an unstructured environment, especially on soft terrains. First, the Error-state Kalman Filter (ErKF) is extended by optimizing the leg odometry information to get an accurate robot state, especially in soft, uneven terrain. The ErKF method fuses the sensor data from the inertial measurement unit, laser, camera, and leg odometry. The leg odometry is optimized by considering the foot slippage, which easily occurs in soft uneven terrains. Then, the unstructured environment is parameterized and modeled by the terrain inclination, roughness, height, and stiffness. A traversability map, which is essential for robot path and foothold planning in autonomous movement, is constructed with the above parameters. Finally, the proposed method is verified by simulation and experiments. The results show that the quadruped robot can walk stably on different soft and uneven terrains.     

智能决策改进的四足机器人ZMP爬行步态算法

提出了一种基于反馈控制和贪婪决策的四足机器人爬行步态规划算法。该算法利用机载惯性传感器IMU（Inertial Measurement Unit）来实时计算零力矩点和姿态角,以稳态裕度为指标在支撑平面内实时规划期望零力矩点（Zero Moment Point,ZMP）轨迹,结合非线性反馈控制器实现对机体ZMP点的连续平滑调节,保证机器人在按给定速度矢量进行连续爬行的同时具有抵抗一定外力扰动的能力。步态规划采用动态步态周期,基于机器人结构约束和贪婪决策实现跨腿的自动触发,提高了步态自适应性。最终通过样机行走实验验证了所提算法应用于微型四足机器人中的可行性,机器人实现了在平坦地面上稳定地全向行走和旋转,所提算法同时兼顾了自适应性和稳定裕度。     

基于扩展雅可比矩阵的冗余液压驱动四足机器人运动控制

针对冗余液压驱动四足机器人运动学逆解问题,提出一种基于扩展雅可比矩阵的冗余液压驱动四足机器人运动控制方法.该方法既能解决冗余自由度带来的逆解多解问题,还能使机器人足端入地角度满足摩擦锥要求避免足端滑动.首先,规划机器人足端轨迹得到机器人足端速度,在分析机器人足端入地角度对机器人运动性能影响的基础上,结合机器人腿部结构几...     

基于Klann连杆的球腿复合机器人的设计与研究

结合球形和四足机器人两者优势,创新性地提出一种能适应多重作业环境的球腿复合移动机器人．在滚动模式下,对其进行直线滚动和侧滚转向分析,验证机器人转向的可行性．在四足模式下,以复数矢量法求得机器人足端坐标,并用Matlab绘制的足端轨迹曲线与Adams仿真曲线对比,验证了理论的正确性．以抬腿高度作为目标函数,由非线性规划算法求得足端轨迹最优解．采用质心投影法分析了机器人四足行走时的稳定性．建立仿真模型对机器人的四足直行、四足转向、四足爬坡和球体侧滚等运动模式进行仿真试验．同时,制作一台样机,验证了该机器人方案设计及各运动模式的可行性．     

Design and implementation of a novel hybrid quadruped spherical mobile robot

Spherical mobile robots are a novel type of mobile robots having some advantages in motion over other ordinary mobile robots. The advantages can be related to their symmetric spherical shape. Despite many works being conducted in recent years on spherical mobile robots, it seems that finding the best driving mechanism with higher efficiency still needs much research. In this article, a novel type of spherical mobile robot is introduced. This robot has a hybrid structure of the spherical robots and ordinary four legged or quadruped robots. Adding legs to the spherical robot reduces some disadvantages of its behavior. After introduction of the mentioned robot, its dynamic model based on Lagrange equations is obtained. The accuracy of the developed dynamic model in tracking a trajectory is verified through a dynamic simulation. Experimental results in tracking a square trajectory is presented to show the verification.     

Adaptive control of a constrained robot - ensuring zero trackingand zero force errors

A constrained robot is a mathematical model that describes the interaction between a robot and the environment as the robot moves along a prescribed trajectory. The main difficulty in the control of constrained robots is to ensure zero error for the constraint force in addition to accurate trajectory tracking. This study extends the result of Slotine and Li (1991) to design a simple adaptive controller for constrained robots. The proposed controller achieves both control objectives in the presence of dynamic parameter uncertainty. The overall system is proven to be globally stable in the Lyapunov sense. Simulation results are provided to demonstrate the performance of the proposed method     

Gait planning for quadruped robot based on dynamic stability: landing accordance ratio

In this article, the method for increasing dynamic stability of quadruped robot is proposed. Previous researches on dynamic walking of quadruped robots have used only walking pattern called central pattern generator (CPG). In this research, different from walking generation with only CPG, a instinctive stability measure called landing accordance ratio, is proposed and used for increasing dynamic stability. In addition, dynamic balance control and control to adjust walking trajectory for increasing dynamic stability measure is also proposed. Proposed methods are verified with dynamic simulation and a large number of experiments with quadruped robot platform.     

无人仓多搬运机器人协同作业轨迹自动控制研究

由于无人仓多搬运机器人协同作业线路较为复杂,导致协同作业轨迹控制难度增加,为了保证多搬运机器人能够按照规划路线执行搬运作业,提出了无人仓多搬运机器人协同作业轨迹自动控制方法;采用栅格图建模法,结合无人仓内货架的实际分布情况,建立无人仓环境场景;从组成结构、运动学以及动力学3个方面,构建搬运机器人的数学模型;遵循就近原则分配多机器人搬运任务,规划多搬运机器人的协同作业轨迹,根据多搬运机器人实时位姿的自动检测结果计算控制量,利用作业轨迹自动控制器的安装与运行,完成无人仓多搬运机器人协同作业轨迹的自动控制任务;实验结果表明,在该方法应用后,多搬运机器人在无人仓中的作业轨迹与规划轨迹基本相同,计算得出的平均位置控制误差和姿态角控制误差分别为2.27 cm和0.05°,搬运机器人的碰撞次数能被控制在规定范围内,实际应用效果好。     

一种多模型融合的仿猎豹四足机器人复杂运动控制方法

针对具有2自由度主动脊柱关节的仿猎豹四足机器人,基于任务分解思想和生物神经系统机理,提出多模型融合的控制方法。该方法以弹簧负载倒立摆模型实现单腿跳跃控制,通过中枢模式发生器（CPG）实现4条腿之间以及脊柱―腿之间的协调控制,利用虚拟模型控制实现机器人与环境交互,采用基于CPG输出的有限状态机来融合3个控制模型,构建仿猎豹四足机器人的多模型分层运动控制器。参考猎豹脊柱运动特征,设计了机器人脊柱关节运动模式,给出脊柱与腿的协调控制策略。最后,在Webots仿真环境中搭建了仿猎豹四足机器人虚拟样机,实现了不同步态下的脊柱―腿的协调控制、在崎岖地形上稳定奔跑,以及平滑的对角―疾驰―对角步态转换,仿真结果验证了所提出的多模型融合的四足机器人运动控制方法的有效性。     

Generation of a continuous free gait for quadruped robot over rough terrains

Generating a robust gait is one of the most important factors to improve the adaptability of quadruped robots on rough terrains. This paper presents a new continuous free gait generation method for quadruped robots capable of walking on the rough terrain characterized by the uneven ground and forbidden areas. When walking with the proposed gait, the robot can effectively maintain its stability by using the Center of Gravity (COG) trajectory planning method. After analyzing the point cloud of rough terrain, the forbidden areas of the terrain can be obtained. Based on this analysis, an optimal foothold search strategy is presented to help quadruped robot to determine the optimum foothold for the swing foot automatically. In addition, the foot sequence determining method is proposed to improve the performance of robot. With the free gait proposed in this paper, quadruped robot can walk through the rough terrains automatically and successfully. The correctness and effectiveness of the proposed method is verified via simulations.     

电动力液压驱动四足双臂机器人的设计与实现

针对定基座机器人在复杂环境下作业能力不足的问题,研制出电动力液压四足双臂机器人,将浮动基座与双臂系统的优势有机结合,能够代替人员完成复杂环境下应急处置、工程作业等任务。详细阐述了四足双臂机器人的机械结构、机载电液动力系统、分布式控制系统以及仿真与操作训练平台的设计与实现。提出基于全身虚拟模型的足底力分配方法与足臂协调运动规划方法,实现了躯干浮动基座与双臂系统的联动,大大提升了机器人的作业能力和效率。通过搭建的仿真与操作训练平台完成单臂作业以及双臂协同作业的仿真,验证了所提出控制方法的有效性,并对机器人操作员进行操作训练。在实际样机实验中,测试了单臂抓取以及双臂协同抓取的能力,证明了四足双臂机器人能够满足复杂环境下移动作业的需求。     

液压驱动型四足机器人电液伺服控制系统仿真建模与实验分析

复杂的作业环境和艰巨的作业任务使液压驱动型四足机器人对其伺服系统的精度、速度和力量均比一般机器人在普通情况下有更高的要求。为掌握液压驱动型四足机器人在多种路况下行走时各液压缸的受力情况以及液压系统内流量、压力的变化情况,需要对其虚拟样机进行机械动力系统和液压伺服系统的联合仿真,定性分析电液伺服系统位置、速度等被控对象的特性,并分析PID控制器在四足机器人伺服控制方面的特性与不足。针对传统控制算法在四足机器人控制存在的短板问题,设计了一种非对称前馈补偿模糊自适应PID算法,并利用物理样机进行了实际验证。实验结果为四足机器人电液伺服控制系统硬件、软件和控制算法的设计与优化指明了方向,还为研究四足机器人平稳步态控制策略提供了决策依据和数据支持。     

Neural Network Force Control for Industrial Robots

In this paper, we present a hierarchical force control framework consisting of a high level control system based on neural network and the existing motion control system of a manipulator in the low level. Inputs of the neural network are the contact force error and estimated stiffness of the contacted environment. The output of the neural network is the position command for the position controller of industrial robots. A MITSUBISHI MELFA RV-M1 industrial robot equipped with a BL Force/Torque sensor is utilized for implementing the hierarchical neural network force control system. Successful experiments for various contact motions are carried out. Additionally, the proposed neural network force controller together with the master/slave control method are used in dual-industrial robot systems. Successful experiments are carried out for the dual-robot system handling an object.     

Rolling Contact Motion Generation and Control of Robotic Fingers

Dexterity in human hand is connected with the fingertip rolling ability. In this work we consider rolling motion of spherical robotic fingertips as one of the control objectives together with the set point position control and force trajectory tracking. The generation of a rolling motion trajectory is proposed and a control solution is designed which achieves prescribed transient and steady state tracking behavior. The proposed control law is structurally and computationally simple and does not utilize the dynamics of the robot model or its approximation. A simulation of a five degrees of freedom robot show excellent contact rolling performance even at cases of adverse friction conditions while alternative controllers lead to contact sliding. Experiments with a KUKA LWR4 + are performed to validate the proposed method.     

How to Control Robots Interacting with Dynamic Environment

The goal of this paper is to shed light on the control problem of constrained robot motion from the aspect of the dynamical nature of the environment with which the robot is in contact. Therefore, the criticism of traditional hybrid control which allows position/force feedback loops to split into independent control with respect to position and force, is not the main point we want to make. Reference to the papers written by the founders of hybrid control and their numerous followers served only to better understand the reason and motivation for suggesting a different approach to control of robots interacting with environment.The paper has a predominantly review character, based on recently published work. It also contains some new, unpublished results in the framework of the unified approach to the position/force control of robots, proposed by the present author and his co-workers. By pointing to the possibility of introducing an environment dynamics in the contact tasks of the machining type, the author emphasizes that the proposed dynamically interactive control can be applied to a completely different class of tasks, in which a contact is made between the system (constructions or structure) and very specific kinds of dynamic environments.     

Robot teaching system based on hand-robot contact state detection and motion intention recognition

This paper presents a robot teaching system based on hand-robot contact state detection and human motion intent recognition. The system can detect the contact state of the hand-robot joint and extracts motion intention information from the human surface electromyography (sEMG) signals to control the robot's motion. First, a hand-robot contact state detection method is proposed based on the fusion of the virtual robot environment with the physical environment. With the use of a target detection algorithm, the position of the human hand in the color image of the physical environment can be identified and its pixel coordinates can be calculated. Meanwhile, the synthetic images of the virtual robot environment are combined with those of the physical robot scene to determine whether the human hand is in contact with the robot. Besides, a human motion intention recognition model based on deep learning is designed to recognize human motion intention with the input of sEMG signals. Moreover, a robot motion mode selection module is built to control the robot for single-axis motion, linear motion, or repositioning motion by combining the hand-robot contact state and human motion intention. The experimental results indicate that the proposed system can perform online robot teaching for the three motion modes.     

基于接触状态识别的机器人操作充电枪寻孔策略

针对机器人操作充电枪寻孔过程,研究一种基于接触状态识别的寻孔策略.基于以接触力为基本特征点的支持向量机(SVM)的线性分割算法,提出一种寻孔接触状态识别方法.针对端面接触状态、两点接触状态和三点接触状态,分别给出充电枪插头坐标系下的向心力方向、侧向力方向和扭矩方向的寻孔速度轨迹规划方法,并提出一种跟踪Z方向寻孔装配力与XY平面寻孔速度轨迹的力位混合控制方法.最后基于6自由度协作机器人、充电枪插头及插座的实验平台,通过寻孔操作实验验证所提出方法的正确性和有效性.     

侧向推搡下的四足机器人复合抗扰控制策略

针对四足机器人侧向推搡下的平衡恢复问题,提出了一种复合抗扰反应式鲁棒控制策略.该策略由摆动相的自适应侧摆规划策略和支撑相的关节抗扰控制构成.摆动相自适应侧摆规划策略通过四足机器人足端落地点的力平衡条件进行主动式步态规划以保证机器人在侧向推搡下的姿态稳定,并基于关节输出力矩给出了侧摆的启动条件.支撑相关节抗扰控制通过带扰动项的四足机器人完整动力学模型设计了基于干扰观测器的鲁棒滑模控制器,实现对侧向推搡扰动的补偿.最后,通过Matlab与ADAMS联合仿真验证了提出的控制策略的有效性.     

Motion planning and contact control for a tele-assisted hydraulic underwater robot

Implementing tele-assistance or supervisory control for autonomous subsea robots requires atomic actions that can be called from high level task planners or mission managers. This paper reports on the design and implementation of a particular atomic action for the case of a subsea robot carrying out tasks in contact with the surrounding environment.Subsea vehicles equipped with manipulators can have upward of 11 degrees of freedom (DOF), with degenerate and redundant inverse kinematics. Distributed local motion planning is presented as a means to specify the motion of each robot DOF given a goal point or trajectory. Results are presented to show the effectiveness of the distributed versus non-distributed approach, a means to deal with local minima difficulties, and the performance for trajectory following with and without saturated joint angles on a robot arm.Consideration is also given to the modelling of hydraulic underwater robots and to the resulting design of hybrid position/force control strategies. A model for a hydraulically actuated robot is developed, taking into account the electrohydraulic servovalve, the bulk modulus of oil, piston area, friction, hose compliance and other arm parameters. Open and closed-loop control results are reported for simulated and real systems.Finally, the use of distributed motion planning and sequential position/force control of a Slingsby TA-9 hydraulic underwater manipulator is described, to implement an atomic action for tele-assistance. The specific task of automatically positioning and inserting a Tronic subsea mateable connector is illustrated, with results showing the contact conditions during insertion.     

Bionic Quadruped Robot Dynamic Gait Control Strategy Based on Twenty Degrees of Freedom

Quadruped robot dynamic gaits have much more advantages than static gaits on speed and efficiency, however high speed and efficiency calls for more complex mechanical structure and complicated control algorithm. It becomes even more challenging when the robot has more degrees of freedom. As a result, most of the present researches focused on simple robot, while the researches on dynamic gaits for complex robot with more degrees of freedom are relatively limited. The paper is focusing on the dynamic gaits control for complex robot with twenty degrees of freedom for the first time. Firstly, we build a relatively complete 3D model for quadruped robot based on spring loaded inverted pendulum (SLIP) model, analyze the inverse kinematics of the model, plan the trajectory of the swing foot and analyze the hydraulic drive. Secondly, we promote the control algorithm of one-legged to the quadruped robot based on the virtual leg and plan the state variables of pace gait and bound gait. Lastly, we realize the above two kinds of dynamic gaits in ADAMS-MATLAB joint simulation platform which testify the validity of above method.