Related papers: Walking Posture Adaptation for Legged Robot Naviga…
Legged robotic systems can play an important role in real-world applications due to their superior load-bearing capabilities, enhanced autonomy, and effective navigation on uneven terrain. They offer an optimal trade-off between mobility…
Legged robot navigation in extreme environments can hinder the use of cameras and laser scanners due to darkness, air obfuscation or sensor damage. In these conditions, proprioceptive sensing will continue to work reliably. In this paper,…
In this paper, an online adaptation algorithm for bipedal walking on uneven surfaces with height uncertainty is proposed. In order to generate walking patterns on flat terrains, the trajectories in the task space are planned to satisfy the…
Humanoid robots rely on multi-contact planners to navigate a diverse set of environments, including those that are unstructured and highly constrained. To synthesize stable multi-contact plans within a reasonable time frame, most planners…
In this paper, WALK-VIO, a novel visual-inertial odometry (VIO) with walking-motion-adaptive leg kinematic constraints that change with body motion for localization of quadruped robots, is proposed. Quadruped robots primarily use VIO…
This work introduces a model-free reinforcement learning framework that enables various modes of motion (quadruped, tripod, or biped) and diverse tasks for legged robot locomotion. We employ a motion-style reward based on a relaxed…
This paper reports on developing an integrated framework for safety-aware informative motion planning suitable for legged robots. The information-gathering planner takes a dense stochastic map of the environment into account, while safety…
Bipedal humanoid robots must precisely coordinate balance, timing, and contact decisions when locomoting on constrained footholds such as stepping stones, beams, and planks -- even minor errors can lead to catastrophic failure. Classical…
Legged robots have significant potential to operate in highly unstructured environments. The design of locomotion control is, however, still challenging. Currently, controllers must be either manually designed for specific robots and tasks,…
Humans are able to negotiate downstep behaviors -- both planned and unplanned -- with remarkable agility and ease. The goal of this paper is to systematically study the translation of this human behavior to bipedal walking robots, even if…
Multi-legged robots deployed in complex missions are susceptible to physical damage in their legs, impairing task performance and potentially compromising mission success. This letter presents a rapid, training-free damage recovery…
This paper explores the design strategies for hybrid pole- or trunk-climbing robots, focusing on methods to inform design decisions and assess metrics such as adaptability and performance. A wheeled-grasping hybrid robot with modular,…
Locomotion on granular slopes such as sand dunes remains a fundamental challenge for legged robots due to reduced shear strength and gravity-induced anisotropic yielding of granular media. Using a hexapedal robot on a tiltable granular bed,…
Legged robots can outperform wheeled machines for most navigation tasks across unknown and rough terrains. For such tasks, visual feedback is a fundamental asset to provide robots with terrain-awareness. However, robust dynamic locomotion…
Legged robots, specifically quadrupeds, are becoming increasingly attractive for industrial applications such as inspection. However, to leave the laboratory and to become useful to an end user requires reliability in harsh conditions. From…
Passive deformation due to compliance is a commonly used benefit of soft robots, providing opportunities to achieve robust actuation with few active degrees of freedom. Soft growing robots in particular have shown promise in navigation of…
If robots are to become ubiquitous, they will need to be able to adapt to complex and dynamic environments. Robots that can adapt their bodies while deployed might be flexible and robust enough to meet this challenge. Previous work on…
Quadruped robots have the distinct ability to adapt their body and step height to navigate through cluttered environments. Nonetheless, for these robots to utilize their full potential in real-world scenarios, they require awareness of…
Legged locomotion is commonly studied and expressed as a discrete set of gait patterns, like walk, trot, gallop, which are usually treated as given and pre-programmed in legged robots for efficient locomotion at different speeds. However,…
Navigating quadruped robots in unstructured 3D environments poses significant challenges, requiring goal-directed motion, effective exploration to escape from local minima, and posture adaptation to traverse narrow, height-constrained…