Optimization-Inspired Controller Design for Transient Legged Locomotion
Published in International Conference on Robotics and Automation (ICRA), 2021
Recommended citation: C. Fisher, J. Van Zyl, R. Govender and A. Patel, "Optimization-Inspired Controller Design for Transient Legged Locomotion," 2021 IEEE International Conference on Robotics and Automation (ICRA), China, 2021, pp. 8345-8351, doi: 10.1109/ICRA48506.2021.9560759. https://ieeexplore.ieee.org/document/9560759
Abstract: For robots to leave the safety of the laboratory and explore the world, maneuverability will need to be mastered. However, transient motions, such as rapid acceleration and deceleration, have received little attention in the literature. This is mainly due to the complexity of analyzing these high dimensional systems that have no closed-form solution which makes controller design a non-trivial task. One method is to utilize heuristic control inspired by animal locomotion (or intuition), but these may not be optimal for a given task. Here, we take the novel approach and leverage trajectory optimization methods to enable us to identify heuristic controllers for the task of transient locomotion. Specifically, we investigate acceleration to a steady-state gait as well as decelerating from a steady-state gait to rest. These identified heuristic controllers were then validated on a hybrid pneumatic-electric monopod robot. Our initial results indicate that a Raibert controller is in fact the energy optimal policy for transient maneuvers.