Bipedal robot controller for walking on varied and tricky surfaces
Multi-Terrain Mastery: A Comprehensive Controller for Bipedal Locomotion
Robotics
Summary
Walking robots usually handle only one kind of ground, making it hard for them to move around in real places with many different surfaces. The authors created a single controller that helps a two-legged robot walk steadily on many surfaces, like wet grass, sand, rocks, and stairs. They improved the robot’s stability by adding a new way to handle impacts from walking on uneven or soft grounds. Their controller was tested on a complex robot called Cassie with many moving parts, showing it works in real time.
What this means in practice
- •For robotics engineers: Implement a single control system that enables bipedal robots to walk safely on diverse terrains without switching controllers.
- •For search and rescue teams: Deploy bipedal robots that adapt to natural disaster environments including slopes, sand, and rubble with improved mobility and balance.
Authors
Oluwami Dosunmu-Ogunbi, Aayushi Shrivastava
Abstract
Advancing bipedal robots to navigate diverse terrains remains a significant challenge in robotics. Traditional locomotion controllers excel on specific surfaces but struggle across varied environments, limiting their practical applications. Given the unpredictable nature of real-world environments, a single controller capable of handling multiple terrains is ideal, eliminating the need for multiple specialized controllers. We propose a multi-terrain controller to enhance the versatility and robustness of bipedal locomotion. Building on previous work with a stance ankle motor for stability on inclined and rough surfaces, this paper extends capabilities to steep wet uneven grassy slopes, and compliant terrains such as sand, gravel, rocks, and constrained terrains like staircases. To address the unique demands of these terrains, we introduce a new impact map that is essential for maintaining performance and robustness against unseen terrains. We also discuss in detail the control structure for real-time deployment on the robot. We validate our controller on the 20 degree-of-freedom Cassie bipedal robot.