Related papers: Highly Dynamic Quadruped Locomotion via Whole-Body…
Quadruped robots excel in traversing complex, unstructured environments where wheeled robots often fail. However, enabling efficient and adaptable locomotion remains challenging due to the quadrupeds' nonlinear dynamics, high degrees of…
In this paper we present advancements in control and trajectory generation for agile behavior in bipedal robots. We demonstrate that Whole-Body Operational Space Control (WBOSC), developed a few years ago, is well suited for achieving two…
When do locomotion controllers require reasoning about nonlinearities? In this work, we show that a whole-body model-predictive controller using a simple linear time-invariant approximation of the whole-body dynamics is able to execute…
We show dynamic locomotion strategies for wheeled quadrupedal robots, which combine the advantages of both walking and driving. The developed optimization framework tightly integrates the additional degrees of freedom introduced by the…
In this paper, we describe an approach to achieve dynamic legged locomotion on physical robots which combines existing methods for control with reinforcement learning. Specifically, our goal is a control hierarchy in which highest-level…
This letter presents a control framework for legged robots that enables self-perception and resistance to external disturbances and model uncertainties. First, a novel disturbance estimator is proposed, integrating adaptive control and…
Model Predictive Control (MPC) and Reinforcement Learning (RL) are two prominent strategies for controlling legged robots, each with unique strengths. RL learns control policies through system interaction, adapting to various scenarios,…
This work combines control barrier functions (CBFs) with a whole-body controller to enable self-collision avoidance for the MIT Humanoid. Existing reactive controllers for self-collision avoidance cannot guarantee collision-free…
The hierarchical quadratic programming (HQP) is commonly applied to consider strict hierarchies of multi-tasks and robot's physical inequality constraints during whole-body compliance. However, for the one-step HQP, the solution can…
This paper contributes towards the benchmarking of control architectures for bipedal robot locomotion. It considers architectures that are based on the Divergent Component of Motion (DCM) and composed of three main layers: trajectory…
In this paper, we introduce a kinodynamic model predictive control (MPC) framework that exploits unidirectional parallel springs (UPS) to improve the energy efficiency of dynamic legged robots. The proposed method employs a hierarchical…
This letter presents a new predictive control architecture for high-dimensional robotic systems. As opposed to a conventional Model Predictive Control (MPC) approach to locomotion that formulates a hierarchical sequence of optimization…
Despite recent remarkable achievements in quadruped control, it remains challenging to ensure robust and compliant locomotion in the presence of unforeseen external disturbances. Existing methods prioritize locomotion robustness over…
This paper presents a multi-phase whole-body model predictive control approach for bipedal walking, combining a detailed whole-body model in the near horizon with a simplified single-rigid-body model in the later prediction steps. This…
Whole-body Control (WBC) has emerged as an important framework in locomotion control for legged robots. However, most of WBC frameworks fail to generalize beyond rigid terrains. Legged locomotion over soft terrain is difficult due to the…
This paper presents a Non-Linear Model Predictive Controller for humanoid robot locomotion with online step adjustment capabilities. The proposed controller considers the Centroidal Dynamics of the system to compute the desired contact…
Quadruped robots are machines intended for challenging and harsh environments. Despite the progress in locomotion strategy, safely recovering from unexpected falls or planned drops is still an open problem. It is further made more difficult…
The problem of dynamic locomotion over rough terrain requires both accurate foot placement together with an emphasis on dynamic stability. Existing approaches to this problem prioritize immediate safe foot placement over longer term dynamic…
We present a versatile nonlinear model predictive control (NMPC) formulation for quadrupedal locomotion. Our formulation jointly optimizes a base trajectory and a set of footholds over a finite time horizon based on simplified dynamics…
Quadrupedal manipulators require to be compliant when dealing with external forces during autonomous manipulation, tele-operation or physical human-robot interaction. This paper presents a whole-body controller that allows for the…