Optimization based controller design and implementation for the Atlas robot in the DARPA Robotics Challenge Finals

Abstract

We describe the design and hardware implementation of our walking and manipulation controllers that are based on a cascade of online optimizations. A virtual force acting at the robot's center of mass (CoM) is estimated and used to compensated for modeling errors of the CoM and unplanned external forces. The proposed controllers have been implemented on the Atlas robot, a full size humanoid robot built by Boston Dynamics, and used in the DARPA Robotics Challenge Finals, which consisted of a wide variety of locomotion and manipulation tasks.