Removal of debris blocking an entryway: Inverse kinematic control and balancing controller design for humanoid

Abstract

The humanoid robot, DRC-HUBO is developed from the KHR (KAIST Humanoid Robot) series to meet the requirements of the DARPA Robotics Challenge. DARPA Robotics Challenge was a competition to develop semi-autonomous humanoid robot so that dispatched in dangerous environments in place of humans like the Fukushima nuclear accident. In this paper, we introduce DRCHUBO briefly and a methodology to remove debris blocking an entryway. The methodology includes inverse kinematics for DRCHUBO and stabilization controller based on ZMP. Proposed inverse kinematics is robust, and pelvis-related tasks improve the manipulability and workspace of the arms. The controller improves the damping characteristic of the system and mitigates the instability during removal of debris. For given position and orientation of the debris, DRC-HUBO generates motion to reach the debris and lift up while stabilizing itself. Many experimental results verify our proposed methodology.