EAGER/Collaborative Research: Center-of-Mass Control for Expressive and Effective Movement in Bipedal Robots

EAGER/协作研究：双足机器人富有表现力和有效运动的质心控制

• 批准号: 1701378
• 负责人: Joshua Schultz
• 金额: $ 6.35万
• 依托单位: University of Tulsa
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Standard Grant
• 财政年份: 2017
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2017-08-01 至 2018-07-31
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=1701378&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: EAGER; Collaborative; Research; Center; Mass

This EArly-concept Grant for Exploratory Research (EAGER) collaborative project will apply insights from the study of human athletes and dancers to enable similarly effective and expressive movement in humanoid robots. The objective is to create the capability for such movement without duplicating the full complexity and articulation of the human torso. Specifically, the project will implement a novel mechanism for shifting a heavy mass that shifts the robot center of mass independently of limb movements using novel muscle-like actuators, and evaluate the results based on a formal system of movement analysis developed for dance, athletics, and physical therapy. In addition to improving the robot's effectiveness at accomplishing locomotion, i.e., a walking gait, these capabilities will provide new channels for communication between robots and humans, i.e., modulating the style of the walking gait. Humans make unconscious inferences about attitude and intent from observing movement. For example, a robot co-worker will be more effective if its movements communicate trustworthiness and competence to its human partners, and a robot first-responder will be more effective if its movements communicate confidence and leadership during an emergency situation. This project incorporates the interplay of art and technology into outreach activities, such as using dance movements to understand fundamentals of robot locomotion. This project takes a novel approach to generating dynamic walking in a humanoid robot, by exploiting the dynamics of a novel, core-located rolling ball-and-tray actuation mechanism arising from exploration of embodied movement theory. The impedance of the actuator is varied in real time, modulating the robot dynamics to produce qualitatively different excitations. The focus of the project is on controlling the expressive character of robot gait, with explicit comparison to human movement. The goals of the project are to explore the role of center-of-mass control in human walking and to demonstrate the feasibility of the approach for bipedal robotic walking through modeling, simulation, and an initial prototype. The work will model and validate the ball-and-tray actuator via a set of motion primitives designed in accordance with Bartenieff Fundamentals, a formal system of movement analysis. The research team brings together experts in movement science, dynamic walking, and muscle-like actuation. In addition to improving robot performance, this work has the potential to increase the bandwidth of robot-human communications. Expressive movement can convey many different emotional contexts, including urgency, calm, enthusiasm, confidence, et cetera. The ability to engineer these contexts into robot movement has many potential applications in human facing scenarios.

这项对探索性研究（急切）协作项目的早期概念赠款将采用人类运动员和舞者研究的见解，以在类人类机器人中实现类似有效和表现力的运动。目的是创建这种运动的能力，而不必重复人类躯干的全部复杂性和表达。具体而言，该项目将实施一种新型机制，用于转移重型质量，该机制使用新颖的肌肉般的执行器，将机器人质量中心独立于肢体运动，并根据为舞蹈，田径，田径，田径，田径，田径，田径分析制定的正式运动分析来评估结果和物理疗法。除了提高机器人在实现运动方面的有效性（即步行步态）外，这些功能还将为机器人和人类之间的通信提供新的渠道，即调节步行步态的风格。人类对态度和观察运动的意图无意识的推论。例如，如果机器人同事将其运动传达给人类合作伙伴，并且机器人的第一响应者将在紧急情况下传达信心和领导才能，则其运动将更加有效。该项目将艺术和技术的相互作用融合到外展活动中，例如使用舞蹈运动来了解机器人运动的基础。该项目采用一种新颖的方法来利用新颖的核心滚动球和垫子驱动机制，从而在人形机器人机器人中产生动态行走，这是由探索体现运动理论探索而产生的。执行器的阻抗实时变化，调节机器人动力学以产生定性不同的激发。该项目的重点是控制机器人步态的表现性，与人类运动的明确比较。该项目的目标是探索质量控制在人步行中的作用，并证明在建模，模拟和初始原型中进行双足机器人行走方法的可行性。这项工作将通过根据Bartenieff基础设计（正式的运动分析系统）设计的一组运动原语对球和垫子执行器进行建模和验证。研究小组汇集了运动科学，动态步行和类似肌肉的动态专家。除了提高机器人性能外，这项工作还有可能增加机器人 - 人类通信的带宽。富有表现力的运动可以传达许多不同的情感环境，包括紧迫性，冷静，热情，信心等。将这些环境纳入机器人运动的能力在人类面对的情况下具有许多潜在的应用。