Bipedal robot walking control using human whole-body dynamic telelocomotion

The need for deployment of robots in dangerous and/or physically demanding situations, such as search and rescue, has increased the demand for humanoid robots with outstanding sensorimotor skills and highly intelligent decision-making capabilities. A promising solution is to connect humans with humanoid robots via teleoperation. Thus, equipping humanoid robots with human-level intelligence and reflexes. Towards achieving this goal, this thesis presents a framework to dynamically synchronize the gait of a human pilot with the walking of a bipedal robot. First, an intuitive mapping to create a human walking reference from stepping-in-place motion is introduced. The desired walking dynamics generated by the human pilot serve as a reference for the robot to reproduce in a normalized dynamics space. Second, synchronization of the walking reference and robot dynamics in the aforementioned normalized dynamics space is achieved by applying forces to both the human pilot and the robot. Specifically, the haptic forces applied to the human pilot allows the pilot to modify their stepping dynamics to continuously maintain synchrony between the walking reference and robot. Lastly, a step placement law is derived to render the dynamic similarity of the two systems invariant to the hybrid dynamics of walking. The framework is tested in simulation experiments. Using a custom human machine interface, a human subject pilots a reduced-order model of a bipedal robot to achieve stable and synchronous locomotion throughout stepping-in-place, walking, and disturbance rejection experiments.

Name thesis:degree_name

M.S.

Level thesis:degree_level

Thesis

Discipline thesis:degree_discipline

Mechanical Engineering

Grantor

University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign

Year dc:date

2023

Author dc:creator

• Colin Navarro, Guillermo J

Contributors dc:contributor

• Ramos, Joao

• Bipedal Locomotion
• Humanoid Robots
• Teleoperation

Statement dc:rights

• Copyright 2023 Guillermo Colin Navarro

Language dc:language

en, eng

Handle dc:identifier

https://hdl.handle.net/2142/121559

OAI record oai:identifier

https://www.ideals.illinois.edu/oai-pmh?verb=GetRecord&metadataPrefix=etdms&identifier=oai%3Awww.ideals.illinois.edu%3A2142%2F121559