Controlling AeroBot: Development of a Motion Planner for an Actively Articulated Wheeled Humanoid Robot

摘要

There is value in exploring new robot morphologies that combine the benefits of legged robots (i.e. high terrain adaptability, humanlike form factor) with those of wheeled systems (i.e. high stability, low energy consumption). Once the basic design concept has been demonstrated, there is a further requirement to validate the controllability of the system through adaptation and implementation of advanced control techniques. This research presents a motion planner that enables the Aerobot robot, an actively articulated wheeled humanoid robot capable of performing step climbing and gap crossing, to plan dynamically stable motion in response to a range of task conditions. Using a model of the robots kinematics, a motion planner is developed. The sequential quadratic program algorithm is used to solve quadratic objectives and non-linear constraints pertaining to stability and postural configuration adjustment requirements. The results showed good tracking of the robot's Zero Moment Point while transitioning between postural configurations and traversing obstacles. During these phase transitions, robustness in maintaining balance and position is also demonstrated via velocity control of the drive wheels.