Competitive Advantages:
Effective over highly irregular terrain, Has wide applications in planetary exploration and military, Algorithm has the potential for expansion.
In one embodiment, a walking robot includes a robot body, multiple legs attached to and extending from the body, at least one leg including a pivot joint having an initial zero position and a foot that is adapted to contact a ground surface, wherein force applied to the foot because of contact with the ground causes the leg to pivot about the pivot joint, and an angular position sensor associated with the pivot joint and configured to measure a pivot angle through which the leg has pivoted about the pivot joint, the angle being related to the force applied to the foot. Inventors at USF have developed systems and methods that control the locomotion of legged robots over uneven terrain. A Force Threshold-based Position (FTP) controller is used to achieve this level of robust locomotion. The FTP controller isolates the control of each leg to use only localized feedback, which can result in greater responsiveness to the terrain when compared to a centralized controller arbitrating all of the joint positions in a high degree of freedom system. This algorithm also hast the potential for expansion to bipeds, quadrupeds and other biologically-inspired forms.
Brochure
