Disney Enterprises, Inc.

Eth Zurich (eidgenoessische Technische Hochschule Zurich)

Katsu Yamane

Jessica Kate Hodgins

Joohyung Kim

Iain Matthews

Paul A Beardsley

Martin M Rufli

Andreas Breitenmoser

Roland Siegwart

Yuka Ariki

Yu Zheng

Alexander Nicholas Alspach

Stelian Coros

Zachary Thomas Batts

Umashankar Nagarajan

Javier Alonso Mora

Michael Mistry

Sehoon Ha

Seungmoon Song

Akihiko Murai

A robot design system, and associated method, that is particularly well-suited for legged robots (e.g., monopods, bipeds, and quadrupeds). The system implements three stages or modules: (a) a motion optimization module; (b) a morphology optimization module; and (c) a link length optimization module. The motion optimization module outputs motion trajectories of the robot's center of mass (COM) and force effectors. The morphology optimization module uses as input the optimized motion trajectories and a library of modular robot components and outputs an optimized robot morphology, e.g., a parameterized mechanical design in which the number of links in each of the legs and other parameters are optimized. The link length optimization module takes this as input and outputs optimal link lengths for a particular task such that the design of a robot is more efficient. The system solves the problem of automatically designing legged robots for given locomotion tasks by numerical optimization.

Computational design of robots from high-level task specifications

A prismatic actuator for imparting a hopping motion to a supported load such as a leg of robot. The apparatus includes a direct drive motor, such as a voice coil, operable to provide translational motion. The apparatus includes a spring element and a prismatic guide assembly. The guide assembly is configured to support the direct drive motor to constrain the translational motion to be along a drive axis and support the spring element to constrain compression and expansion of the spring element along a longitudinal axis parallel to the drive axis. The apparatus includes a controller that: (1) first controls the direct drive motor to compress the spring element during a first time period beginning when the apparatus initially contacts a surface; and (2) second controls the direct drive motor to expand the spring element when the apparatus has zero velocity while contacting the surface.

Parallel elastic mechanism for robot-environment force interaction

A robot designed for reducing collision impacts during human interaction. The robot includes a robot controller including a joint control module. The robot includes a link including a rigid support element and a soft body segment coupled to the rigid support element, and the body segment includes a deformable outer sidewall enclosing an interior space. The robot includes a pressure sensor sensing pressure in the interior space of the link. A joint is coupled to the rigid support element to rotate or position the link. During operations, the robot controller operates the joint based on the pressure sensed by the pressure sensor. The robot controller modifies operation of the joint from a first operating state with a servo moving or positioning the joint to a second operating state with the servo operating to allow the joint to be moved or positioned in response to outside forces applied to the link.

Soft body robot for physical interaction with humans

The disclosure provides an approach for automatically determining task-specific robot model reductions. In one embodiment, a simplification application determines a smallest order statespace model whose stabilizing controller also stabilizes a full-order robot model. The simplification application may determine such a model via an iterative procedure in which the reduced order is initialized to the number of unstable poles of the open-loop full-order system and, while the closed loop full-order system with the balanced reduced order system's stabilizing controller is unstable, fractional balanced reduction is applied to generate a balanced reduced system. If one or more unstable closed-loop poles exist in the full-order system with the stabilizing controller of the newly-generated balanced reduced system, the reduced order is incremented by one, and fractional balanced reduction repeated, until no unstable closed-loop poles remain. In another embodiment, the model reduction is made task-specific by formulating the full model with task-specific outputs.

Automatic task-specific model reduction for humanoid robots

A control method, and a robot controller implementing the method, is provided that adapts human motions to floating-base humanoid robots with time warping techniques. The method of modifying a set of reference motions modifies the timeline of a reference motion so as to speed up or slow down one or more of the motions or motion segments. Through the use of time warping, the velocity and acceleration profiles of the motion are changed to turn an infeasible motion into a feasible one. The optimal time warping is obtained through a generalized motion feasibility index that quantifies the feasibility of a motion considering the friction constraint as well as the center-of-pressure (CoP) constraint. Due to the use of the motion feasibility index, the proposed motion adaptation method taught herein can be applied to motions on arbitrary terrains or with any number of links in contact with the environment.

Control method for floating-base robots including generating feasible motions using time warping

A robot having the motion style of a character defined by animation data obtained from an animation movie or computer animation data files. The robot is generated using a robot development method that obtains animation data for a character walking or performing other movements. The character may be humanoid, and the method includes developing a bipedal robot with a lower portion having a kinematic structure matching the kinematic structure of the lower portion of the animation character as defined in the animation data. A control program is generated for the robot such as by using trajectory optimization. The control program may include an open-loop walking trajectory that mimics the character's walking motion provided in the animation data. The open-loop walking trajectory may be generated by modifying the motion of the character from the animation data such that the Zero Moment Point (ZMP) stays in the contact convex hull.

Method for developing and controlling a robot to have movements matching an animation character

Various embodiments of the invention provide a control framework for robots such that a robot can use all joints simultaneously to track motion capture data and maintain balance. Embodiments of the invention provide a framework enabling complex reference movements to be automatically tracked, for example reference movements derived from a motion capture data system.

Systems and methods for tracking and balancing robots for imitating motion capture data

Embodiments of the invention provide an approach for reproducing a human action with a robot. The approach includes receiving data representing motions and contact forces of the human as the human performs the action. The approach further includes approximating, based on the motions and contact forces data, the center of mass (CoM) trajectory of the human in performing the action. Finally, the approach includes generating a planned robot action for emulating the designated action by solving an inverse kinematics problem having the approximated human CoM trajectory as a hard constraint and the motion capture data as a soft constraint.

Robot action based on human demonstration

Techniques are disclosed for optimizing and maintaining cyclic biped locomotion of a robot on an object. The approach includes simulating trajectories of the robot in contact with the object. During each trajectory, the robot maintains balance on the object, while using the object for locomotion. The approach further includes determining, based on the simulated trajectories, an initial state of a cyclic gait of the robot such that the simulated trajectory of the robot starting from the initial state substantially returns to the initial state at an end of one cycle of the cyclic gait. In addition, the approach includes sending joint angles and joint velocities of the initial state to a set of joint controllers of the robot to cause a leg of the robot to achieve the initial state so the robot moves through one or more cycles of the cyclic gait.

Robot cyclic locomotion using a dynamic object

Techniques are disclosed for controlling robot pixels to display a visual representation of an input. The input to the system could be an image of a face, and the robot pixels deploy in a physical arrangement to display a visual representation of the face, and would change their physical arrangement over time to represent changing facial expressions. The robot pixels function as a display device for a given allocation of robot pixels. Techniques are also disclosed for distributed collision avoidance among multiple non-holonomic robots to guarantee smooth and collision-free motions. The collision avoidance technique works for multiple robots by decoupling path planning and coordination.

Display with robotic pixels

The disclosure provides an approach for determining simplified models of humanoid robots. A simplification application linearizes a robot model around a nominal state and performs a singular value decomposition of an inertial term of the model, selecting singular values and corresponding singular vectors to be kept in an inertial term of a simplified model by matching a kinetic energy of the original model to a kinetic energy of the simplified model. Further, a gravitational forces term and a velocity-dependent forces term may be determined by computing active joint torques at sample poses around the nominal pose and solving for the gravitational forces term and the velocity-dependent forces term. A mapping from the simplified model to the original model may be determined using, e.g., numerical optimization.

Systemic derivation of simplified dynamics for humanoid robots

Systems, methods and products for animating non-humanoid characters with human motion are described. One aspect includes selecting key poses included in initial motion data at a computing system; obtaining non-humanoid character key poses which provide a one to one correspondence to selected key poses in said initial motion data; and statically mapping poses of said initial motion data to non-humanoid character poses using a model built based on said one to one correspondence from said key poses of said initial motion data to said non-humanoid character key poses. Other embodiments are described.

Systems and methods for animating non-humanoid characters with human motion data

A method for calibrating a force-controlled, biped humanoid robot. The method includes selecting a kinematic constraint for the humanoid robot such as maintain the two feet in flat contact with the floor. The method includes moving the humanoid robot into a plurality of poses while enforcing the kinematic constraint. The method includes, during the moving or posing step, collecting angle measurements for a set of joints of the humanoid robot and then, with a processor, running a kinematic calibration module to determine angular offsets for the robot joints to allow determination of joint torques by a robot controller with truer angular orientations. The method includes, during the moving step, collecting relative orientation data from an inertial movement unit (IMU) mounted on the pelvis link, and the angular offsets are determined using relative orientation data. All data is collected from devices on the robot, and no external data collection is required.

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Pittsburgh, PA, United States of America

Katsu Yamane