Related papers: Bipedal-Walking-Dynamics Model on Granular Terrain…
Dynamic walking on bipedal robots has evolved from an idea in science fiction to a practical reality. This is due to continued progress in three key areas: a mathematical understanding of locomotion, the computational ability to encode this…
Much of the Earth and many surfaces of extraterrestrial bodies are composed of in-cohesive particle matter. Locomoting on granular terrain is challenging for common robotic devices, either wheeled or legged. In this work, we discover a…
Legged robots are well-suited for broad exploration tasks in complex environments with yielding terrain. Understanding robotic foot-terrain interactions is critical for safe locomotion and walking efficiency for legged robots. This paper…
The vertical ground reaction force (vGRF) and its characteristic weight acceptance and push-off peaks measured during walking are important for gait and biomechanical analysis. Current wearable vGRF estimation methods suffer from drifting…
Characterizing forces on deformable objects intruding into sand and soil requires understanding the solid and fluid-like responses of such substrates and their effect on the state of the object. The most detailed studies of intrusion in dry…
Legged robots face significant challenges in moving and navigating on deformable and highly yielding terrain such as mud. We present a resistive force model for legged foot-mud interactions. The model captures rheological behaviors such as…
Quadrupedal locomotion over complex terrain has been a long-standing research topic in robotics. While recent reinforcement learning-based locomotion methods improve generalizability and foot-placement precision, they rely on implicit…
Robust and energy-efficient bipedal locomotion in robotics is still a challenging topic. In order to address issues in this field, we can take inspiration from nature, by studying human locomotion. The Spring-Loaded Inverted Pendulum (SLIP)…
Wheeled rovers have been the primary choice for lunar exploration due to their speed and efficiency. However, deeper areas, such as lunar caves and craters, require the mobility of legged robots. To do so, appropriate end effectors must be…
Learning human-like, robust bipedal walking remains difficult due to hybrid dynamics and terrain variability. We propose a lightweight framework that combines a gait generator network learned from human motion with Proximal Policy…
Muddy terrains present significant challenges for terrestrial robots, as subtle changes in composition and water content can lead to large variations in substrate strength and force responses, causing the robot to slip or get stuck. This…
In this work, we demonstrate robust walking in the bipedal robot Digit on uneven terrains by just learning a single linear policy. In particular, we propose a new control pipeline, wherein the high-level trajectory modulator shapes the…
Walking is a key movement of interest in biomechanics, yet gold-standard data collection methods are time- and cost-expensive. This paper presents a real-time, multimodal, high sample rate lower-limb motion capture framework, based on…
Granular media (GM) present locomotor challenges for terrestrial and extraterrestrial devices because they can flow and solidify in response to localized intrusion of wheels, limbs, and bodies. While the development of airplanes and…
The human foot serves as the critical interface between the body and environment during locomotion. Existing musculoskeletal models typically oversimplify foot-ground contact mechanics, limiting their ability to accurately simulate human…
Humans excel at robust bipedal walking in complex natural environments. In each step, they adequately tune the interaction of biomechanical muscle dynamics and neuronal signals to be robust against uncertainties in ground conditions.…
Ground reaction forces (GRFs) provide fundamental insight into human gait mechanics and are widely used to assess joint loading, limb symmetry, balance control, and motor function. Despite their clinical relevance, the use of GRF remains…
Biped robots have plenty of benefits over wheeled, quadruped, or hexapod robots due to their ability to behave like human beings in tough and non-flat environments. Deformable terrain is another challenge for biped robots as it has to deal…
Real-world applications of bipedal robot walking require accurate, real-time state estimation. State estimation for locomotion over dynamic rigid surfaces (DRS), such as elevators, ships, public transport vehicles, and aircraft, remains…
Planetary bodies characterized by low gravitational acceleration, such as the Moon and near-Earth asteroids, impose unique locomotion constraints due to diminished contact forces and extended airborne intervals. Among traversal strategies,…