An attractor-based Whole-Body Motion Control (WBMC) system for humanoid robots

This paper presents a novel whole-body torque-control concept for humanoid walking robots. The presented Whole-Body Motion Control (WBMC) system combines several unique concepts. First, a computationally efficient gravity compensation algorithm for floating-base systems is derived. Second, a novel balancing approach is proposed, which exploits a set of fundamental physical principles from rigid multi-body dynamics, such as the overall linear and angular momentum, and a minimum effort formulation. Third, a set of attractors is used to implement both balance and movement features such as to avoid joint limits or to create end-effector movements. Superposing several of these attractors allows to generate complex whole-body movements to perform different tasks simultaneously. The modular structure of the proposed control system easily allows extensions. The presented concepts have been validated both in simulations, and on the 29-dofs compliant torque-controlled humanoid robot COMAN. The WBMC has proven robust to the unavoidable model errors.

[1]  Stefan Schaal,et al.  Inverse dynamics control of floating base systems using orthogonal decomposition , 2010, 2010 IEEE International Conference on Robotics and Automation.

[2]  Oussama Khatib,et al.  A unified approach for motion and force control of robot manipulators: The operational space formulation , 1987, IEEE J. Robotics Autom..

[3]  Yoshihiko Nakamura,et al.  Advanced robotics - redundancy and optimization , 1990 .

[4]  Christopher G. Atkeson,et al.  Dynamic Balance Force Control for compliant humanoid robots , 2010, 2010 IEEE/RSJ International Conference on Intelligent Robots and Systems.

[5]  Nikolaos G. Tsagarakis,et al.  A human-like walking for the COmpliant huMANoid COMAN based on CoM trajectory reconstruction from kinematic Motion Primitives , 2011, 2011 11th IEEE-RAS International Conference on Humanoid Robots.

[6]  F. Lacquaniti,et al.  Coordination of Locomotion with Voluntary Movements in Humans , 2005, The Journal of Neuroscience.

[7]  Vinutha Kallem,et al.  Rate of change of angular momentum and balance maintenance of biped robots , 2004, IEEE International Conference on Robotics and Automation, 2004. Proceedings. ICRA '04. 2004.

[8]  Sung-Hee Lee,et al.  A momentum-based balance controller for humanoid robots on non-level and non-stationary ground , 2012, Auton. Robots.

[9]  François Keith,et al.  Dynamic Whole-Body Motion Generation Under Rigid Contacts and Other Unilateral Constraints , 2013, IEEE Transactions on Robotics.

[10]  Nikolaos G. Tsagarakis,et al.  COMpliant huMANoid COMAN: Optimal joint stiffness tuning for modal frequency control , 2013, 2013 IEEE International Conference on Robotics and Automation.

[11]  Stefan Schaal,et al.  Inverse dynamics control of floating-base robots with external constraints: A unified view , 2011, 2011 IEEE International Conference on Robotics and Automation.

[12]  Pierre-Brice Wieber,et al.  Fast resolution of hierarchized inverse kinematics with inequality constraints , 2010, 2010 IEEE International Conference on Robotics and Automation.

[13]  Jun Nakanishi,et al.  A unifying framework for robot control with redundant DOFs , 2007, Auton. Robots.

[14]  Kazuhito Yokoi,et al.  Resolved momentum control: humanoid motion planning based on the linear and angular momentum , 2003, Proceedings 2003 IEEE/RSJ International Conference on Intelligent Robots and Systems (IROS 2003) (Cat. No.03CH37453).

[15]  David E. Orin,et al.  Centroidal dynamics of a humanoid robot , 2013, Auton. Robots.

[16]  Marc Toussaint,et al.  Whole-body Motion Planning – Building Blocks for Intelligent Systems , 2010 .

[17]  Ludovic Righetti,et al.  Operational Space Control of Constrained and Underactuated Systems , 2011, Robotics: Science and Systems.

[18]  Nikolaos G. Tsagarakis,et al.  Development of a dynamic simulator for a compliant humanoid robot based on a symbolic multibody approach , 2013, 2013 IEEE International Conference on Mechatronics (ICM).

[19]  F. A. Mussa-lvaldi,et al.  Convergent force fields organized in the frog's spinal cord , 1993, The Journal of neuroscience : the official journal of the Society for Neuroscience.

[20]  Nikolaos G. Tsagarakis,et al.  On the Kinematic Motion Primitives (kMPs) – Theory and Application , 2012, Front. Neurorobot..

[21]  Neville Hogan,et al.  Impedance Control: An Approach to Manipulation: Part I—Theory , 1985 .

[22]  Oussama Khatib,et al.  Synthesis and control of whole-body behaviors in humanoid systems , 2007 .

[23]  Miomir Vukobratovic,et al.  Zero-Moment Point - Thirty Five Years of its Life , 2004, Int. J. Humanoid Robotics.

[24]  J. W. Humberston.  Classical mechanics , 1980, Nature.

[25]  Luis Sentis,et al.  Compliant Control of Whole-body Multi-contact Behaviors in Humanoid Robots , 2010 .

[26]  Marko B. Popovic,et al.  Ground Reference Points in Legged Locomotion: Definitions, Biological Trajectories and Control Implications , 2005, Int. J. Robotics Res..

[27]  Jovan Popovic,et al.  Multiobjective control with frictional contacts , 2007, SCA '07.

[28]  Chee-Meng Chew,et al.  Virtual Model Control: An Intuitive Approach for Bipedal Locomotion , 2001, Int. J. Robotics Res..

[29]  Atsuo Kawamura,et al.  Eulerian ZMP resolution based bipedal walking: Discussions on the intrinsic angular momentum rate change about center of mass , 2010, 2010 IEEE International Conference on Robotics and Automation.

[30]  Nikolaos G. Tsagarakis,et al.  The design of the lower body of the compliant humanoid robot “cCub” , 2011, 2011 IEEE International Conference on Robotics and Automation.

[31]  David E. Orin,et al.  Generation of dynamic humanoid behaviors through task-space control with conic optimization , 2013, 2013 IEEE International Conference on Robotics and Automation.