Leg motion trajectory generation device for legged mobile robot

• US 8,855,820 B2
• Filed: 01/09/2013
• Issued: 10/07/2014
• Est. Priority Date: 01/10/2012
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: Honda Motor Co., Ltd. (Honda Motor Company)
• Original Assignee: Honda Motor Co., Ltd. (Honda Motor Company)
• Inventors: Watabe, Tomoki
• Primary Examiner(s): HOLLOWAY, JASON R
• Application Number:
  US13/737,344
• Publication Number:
  US 20130178983A1
• Time in Patent Office: 636 Days
• Field of Search: 700/250, 700/253, 700/254, 700/260, 700/261, 318/568.12, 901/1, 901/9
• US Class Current: 700/253
• CPC Class Codes: B62D 57/032 with alternately or sequentially lifted supporting base and legs; with alternately or sequentially lifted feet or skid B62D57/024 takes precedence
• CPC Class Codes: G05D 1/0251 extracting 3D information from a plurality of images taken from different locations, e.g. stereo vision stereoscopic image analysis H04N13/00; depth recovery from images G06T7/593
• CPC Class Codes: G05D 3/12 using feedback
• CPC Class Codes: Y10S 901/01 Mobile robot

Abstract

A device 11 includes a floor surface information acquisition portion 21 which acquires floor surface information in a plurality of local regions of a floor surface. The gait generator 22 of the device 11 sets the desired landing position and posture of a free leg 3 of a robot 1 within one local region and determines a desired horizontal motion trajectory of the distal end of the free leg 3 to determine a desired vertical motion trajectory of the distal end of the free leg 3 so that the height of the distal end of the free leg 3 is equal to or higher than a lower-limit height determined to prevent a contact between the distal end of the free leg 3 and the floor surface of the local region at the positions of a plurality of sampling points on the desired horizontal motion trajectory.

Claims

1. A leg motion trajectory generation device for a legged mobile robot which generates a desired motion trajectory of each leg in the legged mobile robot which moves by repeating a leaving motion and a landing motion of a distal end of each of a plurality of the legs, the generation device comprising:

a floor surface information acquisition element which acquires floor surface information including at least floor surface information which is identified beforehand in each of a plurality of local regions of a floor surface in an operating environment of the robot and which represents a position and a posture of a ground-contactable surface of the distal end of each leg of the robot in each local region;

a desired landing position/posture setting element which sets a desired landing position and a desired landing posture of the distal end of a free leg, which is a leg making the leaving motion and the landing motion subsequent thereto in the moving motion of the robot, within one local region among the plurality of local regions in which the floor surface information is acquired;

a horizontal trajectory determination element which determines a desired horizontal motion trajectory of the distal end of the free leg from a ground contact position immediately before starting the leaving motion of the distal end of the free leg to the set desired landing position, so as to prevent a contact at least between the free leg and another leg;

a lower-limit height determination element which sets a plurality of sampling points on the determined desired horizontal motion trajectory and determines the lower-limit height of the distal end of the free leg, which is necessary to prevent a contact between the distal end of the free leg at the position of the sampling point and the floor surface of a local region existing at the position of the sampling point among the plurality of local regions in which the floor surface information is acquired, on the basis of the floor surface information of the local region existing at the position of the sampling point for each sampling point; and

a vertical trajectory determination element which determines a desired vertical motion trajectory of the distal end of the free leg so that the height of the distal end of the free leg at the positions of the plurality of sampling points is equal to or greater than the determined lower-limit height.

2. The leg motion trajectory generation device for the legged mobile robot according to claim 1,

wherein the local region has an area capable of including the distal end of an arbitrary single leg among the plurality of legs of the robot inside the local region.

3. The leg motion trajectory generation device for the legged mobile robot according to claim 1,

wherein the desired landing position/posture setting element sets the desired landing position and the desired landing posture so that, in the case where the ground-contactable surface of the local region where the desired landing position and the desired landing posture are set is a ground-contactable surface having an edge which is a boundary line of the ground-contactable surface within the local region, the area of a contact surface between the ground-contactable surface and the distal end of the leg and the posture of the distal end of the leg with respect to the direction of the edge satisfy at least a ground contact state condition determined in advance.

4. The leg motion trajectory generation device for the legged mobile robot according to claim 3,

wherein the desired landing position/posture setting element sets the desired landing position and the desired landing posture so that the combination between the horizontal position among the desired landing positions of the distal end of the free leg and the posture in the direction about the vertical axis among the desired landing postures of the free leg satisfies a given combination condition determined in advance.

5. The leg motion trajectory generation device for the legged mobile robot according to claim 1,

wherein the horizontal trajectory determination element determines the desired horizontal motion trajectory so that the maximum height of the supporting leg among the legs of the robot relative to the ground contact surface of the floor surface in the local region, which exists in the position on the desired horizontal motion trajectory of the distal end of the free leg among the plurality of local regions in which the floor surface information is acquired, is equal to or lower than a given value determined in advance.

6. The leg motion trajectory generation device for the legged mobile robot according to claim 1,

wherein the lower-limit height determination element uses a virtual free leg distal end, which is a virtual distal end determined in advance so as to have a larger size than the actual distal end of the free leg to find the maximum height of the virtual free leg distal end at which a contact occurs between the virtual free leg distal end and the floor surface of the local region which exists at the position of each sampling point and determines the height of the distal end of the free leg defined according to the found maximum height as the lower-limit height at the sampling point.

7. The leg motion trajectory generation device for the legged mobile robot according to claim 1,

wherein the vertical trajectory determination element includes a lower-limit offset point determination element which determines a lower-limit offset point, which is a point having a horizontal position which is the same as the sampling point for each sampling point set on the desired horizontal motion trajectory between the ground contact position immediately before starting the leaving motion of the distal end of the free leg and the desired landing position and having a height position higher than the lower-limit height determined so as to correspond to the sampling point by a given offset amount, and the vertical trajectory determination element determines the desired vertical motion trajectory of the distal end of the free leg from the ground contact position immediately before starting the leaving motion of the distal end of the free leg to the desired landing position so as to pass through a lower-limit offset point having the greatest relative height to a virtual straight-line trajectory from the ground contact position immediately before starting the leaving motion of the distal end of the free leg to the desired landing position among the lower-limit offset points and so as to be a convex-shaped trajectory including each lower-limit offset point inside thereof.

8. The leg motion trajectory generation device for the legged mobile robot according to claim 7,

wherein the vertical trajectory determination element determines the desired vertical motion trajectory so that a trajectory near the ground contact position immediately before starting the leaving motion of the distal end of the free leg in the desired vertical motion trajectory is a straight-line trajectory having the greatest tilt relative to the virtual straight-line trajectory among straight lines from the ground contact position to each lower-limit offset point and so that a trajectory near the desired landing position of the distal end of the free leg in the desired vertical motion trajectory is a straight-line trajectory having the greatest tilt relative to the virtual straight-line trajectory among straight lines from the desired landing position to each lower-limit offset point.

9. The leg motion trajectory generation device for the legged mobile robot according to claim 8,

wherein the vertical trajectory determination element determines the desired vertical motion trajectory so that the maximum height of the relative height of the desired vertical motion trajectory to the virtual straight-line trajectory is equal to or lower than the relative height of the lower-limit offset point having the greatest relative height to the virtual straight-line trajectory among the lower-limit offset points.