Exploring humanoid robots locomotion capabilities in virtual disaster response scenarios

Abstract

We study the feasibility of having various humanoid robots undertake some tasks from those challenged by the DARPA's call on disaster operations. Hence, we focus on locomotion tasks that apparently require human-like motor skills to be achieved. We use virtual scenes under the fully-3D-modeled-environment assumption. The robot autonomously plans and executes the motion with a high-level goal specification, such as reaching a global position or a particular contact state. We assess the feasibility according not only to the robot kinematics, but also to whole-body dynamics, non-desired collision avoidance, friction limits, and actuation limits. The results -the controlled motions- are demonstrated in the accompanying video.