Saputra Azhar Aulia, Takesue Naoyuki, Wada Kazuyoshi, Ijspeert Auke Jan, Kubota Naoyuki
Graduate School of Systems Design, Tokyo Metropolitan University, Hino-shi, Japan.
Biorobotics Laboratory, School of Engineering, Institute of Bioengineering, Lausanne, Switzerland.
Front Robot AI. 2021 Apr 12;8:562524. doi: 10.3389/frobt.2021.562524. eCollection 2021.
There are currently many quadruped robots suited to a wide range of applications, but traversing some terrains, such as vertical ladders, remains an open challenge. There is still a need to develop adaptive robots that can walk and climb efficiently. This paper presents an adaptive quadruped robot that, by mimicking feline structure, supports several novel capabilities. We design a novel paw structure and several point-cloud-based sensory structures incorporating a quad-composite time-of-flight sensor and a dual-laser range finder. The proposed robot is equipped with physical and cognitive capabilities which include: 1) a dynamic-density topological map building with attention model, 2) affordance perception using the topological map, and 3) a neural-based locomotion model. The novel capabilities show strong integration between locomotion and internal-external sensory information, enabling short-term adaptations in response to environmental changes. The robot performed well in several situations: walking on natural terrain, walking with a leg malfunction, avoiding a sudden obstacle, climbing a vertical ladder. Further, we consider current problems and future development.
当前有许多适用于广泛应用的四足机器人，但穿越某些地形，如垂直梯子，仍然是一个悬而未决的挑战。仍然需要开发能够高效行走和攀爬的自适应机器人。本文提出了一种通过模仿猫科动物结构来支持多种新颖能力的自适应四足机器人。我们设计了一种新颖的爪子结构和几种基于点云的传感结构，其中包括一个四复合飞行时间传感器和一个双激光测距仪。所提出的机器人具备物理和认知能力，包括：1）带有注意力模型的动态密度拓扑地图构建，2）使用拓扑地图的可供性感知，以及3）基于神经网络的运动模型。这些新颖能力显示出运动与内外部感官信息之间的强大整合，能够针对环境变化进行短期适应。该机器人在几种情况下表现良好：在自然地形上行走、腿部出现故障时行走、避开突然出现的障碍物、攀爬垂直梯子。此外，我们还考虑了当前的问题和未来的发展。
