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Wheeled bipedal robots are emerging as flexible platforms for field exploration. However, head instability induced by uneven terrain can degrade the accuracy of onboard sensors or damage fragile payloads. Existing research primarily focuses…
Prototyping and validating hardware-software components, sub-systems and systems within the intelligent transportation system-of-systems framework requires a modular yet flexible and open-access ecosystem. This work presents our attempt…
Wheeled-legged robots have the potential for highly agile and versatile locomotion. The combination of legs and wheels might be a solution for any real-world application requiring rapid, and long-distance mobility skills on challenging…
The use of robots in education represents a challenge for teachers and a fixed vision of what robots can do for students. This paper presents the development of Sthymuli, a static educational robot designed to explore new classroom…
Most legged robots are built with leg structures from serially mounted links and actuators and are controlled through complex controllers and sensor feedback. In comparison, animals developed multi-segment legs, mechanical coupling between…
In this paper, we present a novel control framework to achieve robust push recovery on bipedal robots while locomoting. The key contribution is the unification of hybrid system models of locomotion with a reduced-order model predictive…
With the rapid development of simulation tools, the development and validation of autonomous robotic systems have become more efficient before real-world deployment. This paper presents a simulation-to-real implementation of an autonomous…
Previous studies have successfully demonstrated agile and robust locomotion in challenging terrains for quadrupedal robots. However, the bipedal locomotion mode for quadruped robots remains unverified. This paper explores the adaptation of…
Tensegrity robots, composed of rigid struts and elastic tendons, provide impact resistance, low mass, and adaptability to unstructured terrain. Their compliance and complex, coupled dynamics, however, present modeling and control…
Developing bipedal robots capable of traversing diverse real-world terrains presents a fundamental robotics challenge, as existing methods using predefined height maps and static environments fail to address the complexity of unstructured…
Effective physical human-robot interaction requires systems that are not only adaptable to user preferences but also transparent about their actions. This paper introduces BRIDGE, a system for bidirectional human-robot communication in…
This paper introduces a way to systematically investigate the effect of compliant prismatic spines in quadrupedal robot locomotion. We develop a novel spring-loaded lockable spine module, together with a new Spinal Compliance-Integrated…
In this paper, we present a novel control architecture for the online adaptation of bipedal locomotion on inclined obstacles. In particular, we introduce a novel, cost-effective, and versatile foot sensor to detect the proximity of the…
This paper presents a framework that leverages both control theory and machine learning to obtain stable and robust bipedal locomotion without the need for manual parameter tuning. Traditionally, gaits are generated through trajectory…
Although bipedal locomotion provides the ability to traverse unstructured environments, it requires careful planning and control to safely walk across without falling. This poses an integrated challenge for the robot to perceive, plan, and…
Accurate traversability estimation is essential for safe and effective navigation of outdoor robots operating in complex environments. This paper introduces a novel experience-based method that allows robots to autonomously learn which…
Traditional one-step preview planning algorithms for bipedal locomotion struggle to generate viable gaits when walking across terrains with restricted footholds, such as stepping stones. To overcome such limitations, this paper introduces a…
The Michigan Robotics MBot is a low-cost mobile robot platform that has been used to train over 1,400 students in autonomous navigation since 2014 at the University of Michigan and our collaborating colleges. The MBot platform was designed…
High-speed legged navigation in discrete and geometrically complex environments is a challenging task because of the high-degree-of-freedom dynamics and long-horizon, nonconvex nature of the optimization problem. In this work, we propose a…
We present a new open-source torque-controlled legged robot system, with a low-cost and low-complexity actuator module at its core. It consists of a high-torque brushless DC motor and a low-gear-ratio transmission suitable for impedance and…