This paper presents and empirically compares solutions to the problem of vision and self-localization on a legged robot. Specifically, given a series of visual images produced by a camera on-board the robot, how can the robot effectively use those images to determine its location over time? Legged robots, while generally more robust than wheeled robots to locomotion in various terrains (Wetterg...

While the current progress in actuation schemes, sensor setups, and mechanical design allows the development of increasingly performing legged robots, motion planing and control of such systems still pose challenging problems. Our group contributes to the ongoing research by focusing on the calibration, state estimation, and perception of legged platforms. Especially in rough and unstructured t...

In human and animal locomotion, compliant structures play an essential role in the body and actuator design. Recently, researchers have started to exploit these compliant mechanisms in robotic systems with the goal to achieve the yet superior motions and performances of the biological counterpart. For instance, compliant actuators such as series elastic actuators (SEA) can help to improve the e...

Gaining high mobility on versatile terrains is a crucial target for designing a mobile robot toward tasks such as search and rescue, scientific exploration, and environment monitoring. Inspired by dextrous limb motion of animals, a novel form of locomotion has been established in our previous study, by proposing an eccentric paddle mechanism (ePaddle) for integrating paddling motion into a trad...

This paper studies the quasi-static motion of large legged robots that have many degrees of freedom. While gaited walking may suffice on easy ground, rough and steep terrain requires unique sequences of footsteps and postural adjustments specifically adapted to the terrain’s local geometric and physical properties. This paper presents a planner that computes these motions by combining graph sea...

We present a control strategy for a simpliied model of a one-legged running robot which features compliant elements in series with hip and leg actuators. For this model, proper spring selection and initial conditions result in \passive dynamic" operation close to the desired motion, without any actuation. However, this motion is not stable. Our controller is based on online calculations of the ...

The present paper deals with the motion analysis of the leg tip of a six-legged walking robot, which mimics the kinematic structure and locomotion of the stick insect. The kinematic model of the six-legged walking robot and the appropriate algorithm for the leg coordination were proposed in previous papers to simulate and analyze different types of gait for different speeds of the robot body, b...

A planning technique for six-legged walking robot is presented in this thesis along with a terrain modelling approach that allows to exploit possible supporting footholds of the surface. The proposed approach for merging measurements provided by a depth camera sensor allows to reconstruct the robot surrounding. Based on the measurements of the environment, a grid based elevation map is construc...

Legged locomotion is a desirable ability for robotic systems thanks to its agile mobility and wide range of motions that it provides. In this paper, the use neural network-based nonlinear controller structures which consist recurrent feedforward layers have been examined in dynamically stable walking problem two-legged robots. detail, hybrid controllers, long short-term memory type neuron model...