Back handspring of a multi-link gymnastic robot — reference model approach

This paper reports on the first gymnastic robot that can perform back handspring. The robot is a planar and serially connected four-link robot, with its joints actuated by electric servomotors. The paper describes the modeling of the robot and the control framework for a back handspring. The controller is derived from a task-specific reference model and its model matching. The use of a reference model described by global physical quantities such as center of mass or angular momentum allows the gymnastic motion planning of a multi-body system to be intuitive and the model matching controller can be applied directly to the experimental model without obtaining each joint trajectory. The controller effectiveness is confirmed via simulations and experiments of the back handspring. Although there remains the problem of how to systematically design the control parameters, the paper shows the strength of the model-based controller for fast gymnastic motions.

[1]  Masato Ishikawa,et al.  Control strategies for mechanical systems with various constraints-control of non-holonomic systems , 1999, IEEE SMC'99 Conference Proceedings. 1999 IEEE International Conference on Systems, Man, and Cybernetics (Cat. No.99CH37028).

[2]  Teruyoshi Sadahiro,et al.  Motion control for robust landing of acrobat robot (SMB) , 2003, Proceedings 2003 IEEE/RSJ International Conference on Intelligent Robots and Systems (IROS 2003) (Cat. No.03CH37453).

[3]  Mitsuji Sampei,et al.  Control of the motion of an acrobot approaching a horizontal bar , 2001, Adv. Robotics.

[4]  S. Shankar Sastry,et al.  Steering of a class of nonholonomic systems with drift terms , 1999, Autom..

[5]  Mark W. Spong,et al.  The swing up control problem for the Acrobot , 1995 .

[6]  T. Mita,et al.  Development and Running Control of a 3 D Leg Robot , 2000 .

[7]  Takashi Emura,et al.  Back Handspring Control of a Multi-Link Gymnastic Robot , 2004 .

[8]  Marc H. Raibert,et al.  Legged Robots That Balance , 1986, IEEE Expert.

[9]  Ronald S. Fearing,et al.  Tracking fast inverted trajectories of the underactuated Acrobot , 1999, IEEE Trans. Robotics Autom..

[10]  Tsutomu Mita,et al.  Analytical time optimal control solution for a two-link planar aerobot with initial angular momentum , 2001, IEEE Trans. Robotics Autom..

[11]  Jun Nakanishi,et al.  A brachiating robot controller , 2000, IEEE Trans. Robotics Autom..

[12]  C. T. Farley,et al.  Running springs: speed and animal size. , 1993, The Journal of experimental biology.

[13]  Tsutomu Mita,et al.  Development of a biologically inspired hopping robot-"Kenken" , 2002, Proceedings 2002 IEEE International Conference on Robotics and Automation (Cat. No.02CH37292).

[14]  Jessica K. Hodgins,et al.  Biped Gymnastics , 1988, Int. J. Robotics Res..

[15]  Tsutomu Mita,et al.  Design of multi-DOF jumping robot , 2002, Proceedings 2002 IEEE International Conference on Robotics and Automation (Cat. No.02CH37292).