Communications of the ACM
Robots Are Designed to Take a Hike With Walking Poles
Researchers say a pair of actuated, smart walking sticks could help robots navigate more steadily over uneven terrain.
Credit: Phys.org
A pair of actuated, smart walking sticks could be used to steady robots navigating uneven terrain, according to Stanford University researchers Oussama Khatib and Shu-Yun Chung. They say the smart staffs would transform biped humanoids into SupraPeds.
In a presentation at the IEEE International Conference on Robotics and Automation in Hong Kong, Khatib and Chung said the smart poles would improve support and enable load redistribution to the upper body. They noted the smart staffs would include vision and force sensing to probe the stability of planned footsteps.
The robot would have a certain level of autonomy, but Khatib and Chung envision it working with a human operator who would receive three-dimensional visual information along with its haptic feedback. "In order to enable operators to perform dexterous manipulation motions with the robot arms while the robot body and perhaps parts of the arms are in contact with the environment, a bimanual haptic interface is introduced," Khatib and Chung say. "With this, operators are able to physically feel external forces that are acting on the robot arms during manipulation tasks and get intuitive haptic feedback during navigation."
The researchers note the smart pole system could integrate with any humanoid robotic platform and improve the ability to operate in unstructured environments.
From PhysOrg.com
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