Natural Bipedal Walking and Running: Stealthy, Efficient, Robust
Abstract
Mobility is a critical bottleneck to fielding robots and autonomous systems for military and other purposes; tracks, treads and wheels just cannot go where humans can go. We aim to create legged systems that can serve as a mobility platform for manipulation, communication, and sensor packages to provide truly useful robot tools that will work alongside and in support of teams of soldiers. As part of this funded work, we will build a bipedal robot, named ÒCassie,Ó that can walk and run outdoors on natural terrain of the same roughness and variation that a human or other large bipedal animal can negotiate while blindfolded. We envision a machine that weighs approximately 80lbs, and will be rugged and tough such that it can be knocked down and picked up, tossed onto the ground, or run into a wall at full speed and be unharmed. It will operate on a single battery charge for hours, have a payload capacity of approximately 10 lbs, and operate as silently as a soldier carrying equipment. We approach the efficiency, robustness, and agility of animal gaits by integrating computational control and mechanically-implemented dynamics as partners in the generation of gait behaviors. Specifically, Cassie will be based on the validated biomechanics concept of spring-mass walking and running, which describes cyclic flows of energy between kinetic energy in the body mass, gravitational potential energy in the body mass, and elastic potential energy in the leg springs. We recently demonstrated this approach with ATRIAS, a human-scale biped. ATRIAS is the first machine to show human-like walking and running gait dynamics, a direct indication that this approach has the potential to match, and eventually exceed, the agility, efficiency, and mobility of humans. While ATRIAS was a successful science demonstration, it could not steer, was fragile to falls and required an overhead gantry, and has room for numerous engineering improvements. Cassie will push forward the research, adding feet to enhance dynamic locomotion and to stand still when desired; steering, for dynamic motion through cluttered environments such as buildings and forests; and reduced-cost sensing and manufacturing to work towards eventual production. Cassie will show the practical utility of legs for robot mobility in the real world, and contribute significantly to a future where machines can inhabit human spaces, work with humans, and usefully integrate with human society.
Document Details
- Document Type
- DoD Grant Award
- Publication Date
- Jan 12, 2017
- Source ID
- W911NF1610002
Entities
People
- Jonathan Hurst
Organizations
- Army Contracting Command
- Office of the Secretary of Defense
- Oregon State University