Robot and control method thereof

• US 8,855,821 B2
• Filed: 05/30/2012
• Issued: 10/07/2014
• Est. Priority Date: 05/30/2011
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Samsung Electronics Co. Ltd.
• Original Assignee: Samsung Electronics Co. Ltd.
• Inventors: Seo, Kee Hong, Kim, Joo Hyung, Roh, Kyung Shik
• Primary Examiner(s): Tran, Khoi
• Assistant Examiner(s): Nguyen, Bao Long T
• Application Number:
  US13/483,697
• Publication Number:
  US 20120310412A1
• Time in Patent Office: 860 Days
• US Class Current: 700/254
• CPC Class Codes: B25J 9/00 Programme-controlled manipulators
• CPC Class Codes: B25J 9/0006 Exoskeletons, i.e. resembling a human figure
• CPC Class Codes: G06N 3/008 based on physical entities controlled by simulated intelligence so as to replicate intelligent life forms, e.g. based on robots replicating pets or humans in their appearance or behaviour
• CPC Class Codes: Y10S 901/01 Mobile robot
• CPC Class Codes: Y10S 901/48 Counterbalance

Abstract

A bipedal robot having a pair of legs with 6 degrees of freedom and a control method thereof which calculate a capture point by combining the position and velocity of the center of gravity (COG) and control the capture point during walking to stably control walking of the robot. A Finite State Machine (FSM) is configured to execute a motion similar to walking of a human, and thus the robot naturally walks without constraint that the knees be bent all the time, thereby being capable of walking with a large stride and effectively using energy required while walking.

Claims

1. A robot provided with a plurality of legs each having a plurality of joint parts and an upper body connected to the plurality of legs while having a plurality degrees of freedom, the robot comprising:

a sensor unit to measure state information of the robot;

a kinematics calculation unit to acquire a current pose of the robot using the measured state information of the robot;

a target setting unit to set a target pose with respect to at least one of the plurality of degrees of freedom of the robot based on a finite state machine (FSM) of the robot set in advance;

a compensation force calculation unit to calculate a pose error by comparing the acquired current pose with the set target pose, and calculate a compensation force with respect to the at least one degree of freedom based on the pose error;

a virtual gravity setting unit to set sizes of virtual gravities required by the plurality of joint parts of the robot, according to the calculated compensation force, and to set sizes of virtual gravities required by the plurality of joint parts of the robot according to a current state of the FSM of the robot;

a gravity compensation torque calculation unit to calculate gravity compensation torques required to compensate for the virtual gravities set by the virtual gravity setting unit; and

a servo control unit to output the calculated gravity compensation torques to the plurality of joint parts.

2. The robot of claim 1, wherein the sensor unit comprises:

a pose detection unit to detect a pose angle of the upper body; and

an angle detection unit to detect an angle of the plurality of joint parts.

3. The robot of claim 2, wherein the kinematics calculation unit calculates a center of gravity (COG) based on the pose angle of the upper body and the angle of the plurality of joint parts, and acquires the current pose of the robot based on the calculated COG.

4. The robot of claim 2, wherein the kinematics calculation unit calculates a position and velocity of the center of gravity (COG) based on the pose angle of the upper body and the angle of the plurality of joint parts, and acquires the current pose of the robot by calculating a current capture point based on the position and velocity of the COG.

5. The robot of claim 2, wherein the kinematics calculation unit acquires a position of a reference point of a hip or the upper body based on the pose angle of the upper body and the angle of the plurality of joint parts, and acquires the current pose based on the position of the reference point.

6. The robot of claim 3, wherein the target setting unit sets a target COG with respect to the at least one degree of freedom;

and set the target pose using the target COG.

7. The robot of claim 4, wherein the target setting unit sets a target capture point with respect to the at least one degree of freedom and sets the target pose using the target capture point.

8. The robot of claim 7, wherein the target setting unit sets the target capture point as a point on a line which passes in a direction of gravity starting from a point within a range supported against a foot of the plurality of legs.

9. The robot of claim 5, wherein the target setting unit sets a target position of the reference point of the hip or the upper body of the robot with respect to the at least one degree of freedom, and sets the target pose based on the target position of the reference point.

10. The robot of claim 7, wherein the kinematics calculation unit further acquires a current hip height of the robot based on the pose angle of the upper body and the angle of the plurality of joint parts, and

the compensation force calculation unit calculates a capture point error by comparing the current capture point with the target capture point, calculates a hip height error by comparing the current hip height with a target hip height and calculates the compensation force based on the capture point error and the hip height error.

11. The robot of claim 10, wherein the compensation force calculating unit calculates a horizontal direction compensation force using the capture point error and calculates a vertical direction compensation force using the hip height error.

12. The robot of claim 2, wherein the pose angle acquired by the pose detection unit includes at least one of a rotation angle in a roll direction (rotated about an X-axis), a rotation angle of in a pitch direction (rotated about a Y-axis) and a rotation angle in a yaw direction (rotated about a Z-axis) of a pelvis link of the robot, and

the robot further comprises a joint torque detection unit to measure torques of the plurality of joint parts.

13. The robot of claim 12, wherein the kinematics calculation unit calculates a position of the current capture point of the robot by calculating a position and a velocity of a current center of gravity (COG) and a current hip height of the robot, and combining the position and the velocity of the COG.

14. The robot of claim 13, further comprising an FSM control unit to store the FSM of the robot in advance, to judge a current state of the FSM of the robot and to control transition from the current state to the next state of the FSM according to whether or not the robot satisfies an FSM state transition condition.

15. The robot of claim 14, wherein the target setting unit sets a target capture point based on a current FSM state of the robot, a target pose angle for controlling the upper body of the robot and a target hip height of the robot.

16. The robot of claim 15, further comprising a compensation moment calculation unit to calculate compensation moments required to reach the target pose angle using a difference between the pose angle measured by the sensor unit and the target pose angle set by the target setting unit.

17. The robot of claim 15, wherein the compensation force calculation unit calculates a compensation force in X and Y directions using differences between positions of the current capture point in the X and the Y directions calculated by the kinematics calculation unit and positions of the target capture point in the X and the Y direction set by the target setting unit, and calculates compensation force in a Z direction using a difference between the current hip height of the robot calculated by the kinematics calculation unit and the target hip height of the robot set by the target setting unit.

18. The robot of claim 16, wherein the virtual gravity setting unit sets a size of a virtual gravity according to the current state of the FSM of the robot and a size of a virtual gravity according to the compensation force calculated by the compensation force calculation unit.

19. The robot of claim 16, wherein the virtual gravity setting unit includes:

a first virtual gravity setting unit to set first virtual gravity required by the respective joints of the robot using Equation 2 below, if g_f represents the first virtual gravity, m represents the mass of the robot and f represents the compensation force calculated by the compensation force calculation unit; and

a second virtual gravity setting unit to set second virtual gravity required by the respective joints according to the current state of the FSM of the robot,

g_f=f/m 

 

[Equation 2].

20. The robot of claim 19, wherein the gravity compensation torque calculation unit calculates a torque required to compensate for the first virtual gravity, the second virtual gravity, and actual gravity.

21. The robot of claim 20, further comprising a weight distribution unit to calculate distance rates between a projection point of the COG of the robot on the ground and the feet connected to the respective legs, and to allot a larger rate of the mass of the upper body of the robot to a leg closer to the projection point of the COG of the robot on the ground using the calculated distance rates.

22. The robot of claim 21, wherein the gravity compensation torque calculation unit calculates a gravity compensation torque to the first virtual gravity and a gravity compensation torque to the second virtual gravity using the mass of the upper body distributed to the respective legs by the weight distribution unit, and adjusts rates of the gravity compensation torque to the first virtual gravity and the gravity compensation torque to the second virtual gravity according to the current state of the FSM of the robot, thereby calculating gravity compensation torques of the respective joints required to compensate for virtual gravities and actual gravity.

23. The robot of claim 22, further comprising a compensation moment distribution unit to calculate distance rates between a projection point of the COG of the robot on the ground and the feet connected to the plurality of legs, and to distribute the compensation moments calculated by the compensation moment calculation unit to the plurality of legs by allotting a larger value of the compensation moment to a leg closer to the projection point of the COG of the robot on the ground using the calculated distance rates.

24. The robot of claim 23, wherein the target torque calculation unit calculates first target torques required by the plurality of legs of the robot from the compensation moments distributed to the plurality of legs by the compensation moment distribution unit using a Jacobian regarding the feet of the robot as bases.

25. The robot of claim 24, wherein the target torque calculation unit calculates second target torques required by the respective joints of the robot by adding the gravity compensation torques calculated by the gravity compensation torque calculation unit to the first target torques.

26. The robot of claim 25, further comprising a torque compensation unit to calculate third target torques by adding damping torques in proportion to angular velocities of the respective joints to the second target torques calculated by the target torque calculation unit.

27. A method of controlling a robot provided with a plurality of legs each having a plurality of joint parts and an upper body connected to the legs while having a plurality of translation degrees of freedom and a rotation degree of freedom, the control method comprising:

detecting a pose angle of the upper body and angles of the plurality of joint parts;

acquiring a current pose of the robot with respect to at least one of the plurality of translation degrees of freedom based on the detected angles of the plurality of joint parts;

calculating a pose error by comparing the acquired current pose with a target pose set in advance;

calculating a compensation force with respect to the at least one translation degree of freedom based on the pose error;

setting virtual gravities based on the calculated compensation force and a current state of a Finite State Machine (FSM) that is set with respect to the robot in advance;

calculating gravity compensation torques required by the plurality of joint parts of the robot to compensate for the set virtual gravities; and

controlling torque servos of the respective joint parts so that torque values of the respective joints of the robot reach target torques that include the calculated gravity compensation torques.

28. The method of claim 27, wherein the calculating of the pose error comprises:

calculating a position of a current center of gravity (COG) based on the detected pose angle and the angles of the plurality of joint parts, wherein a position of a current COG with respect to the at least one translation degree of freedom is calculated;

calculating a COG error with respect to the at least one translation degree of freedom by comparing the calculated current COG with a target COG that is set in advance; and

using the COG error as the pose error.

29. The method of claim 27, wherein the calculating of the pose error comprises:

detecting a position and velocity of a current center of gravity (COG) based on the detected pose angle and the angles of the plurality of joint parts, wherein a position and velocity of a current COG with respect to the at least one translation degree of freedom is detected;

acquiring a current capture point with respect to the at least one translation degree of freedom based on the detected position and velocity of the current COG;

calculating a capture point error with respect to the at least one translation degree of freedom by comparing the obtained current capture point with a target capture point that is set in advance; and

using the capture point error as the pose error.

30. The method of claim 27, wherein the calculating of the pose error comprises:

calculating a position of a reference point of one of a hip and the upper body with respect to the at least one translation degree of freedom based on the detected pose angle and the angles of the plurality of joint parts;

calculating a position error of the reference point with respect to the at least one translation degree of freedom by comparing a position of a current reference point with a position of a target reference point set in advance; and

using the position error of the reference point as the pose error of the at least one translation degree of freedom.

31. The method of claim 27, wherein the calculating of the pose error is different from calculating a pose error of the remaining translation degree of freedom among the plurality of translation degrees of freedom.

32. The method of claim 27, wherein the setting of the virtual gravities required by the respective joint parts of the robot comprises:

setting first virtual gravity required by the respective joints of the robot using Equation 2 below, if g_f represents the first virtual gravity, m represents the mass of the robot and f represents the compensation force calculated; and

setting second virtual gravity required by the respective joints according to the current state of the FSM of the robot,

g_f=f/m 

 

[Equation 2].

33. The method of claim 32, wherein the calculating of the gravity compensation torque comprises:

calculating a gravity compensation torque to the first virtual gravity and a gravity compensation torque to the second virtual gravity; and

adjusting rates of the gravity compensation torque to the first virtual gravity and the gravity compensation torque to the second virtual gravity according to the current state of the FSM of the robot, thereby calculating gravity compensation torques of the respective joints that are to be provided to the joint parts of the robot.

34. The method of claim 27, further comprising:

setting a target pose angle to maintain a stable pose of the robot; and

calculating compensation moments to compensate for a difference between the target pose angle and the detected pose angle.

35. The method of claim 34, further comprising:

calculating first target torques required to supply the calculated compensation moments to the respective joints of the robot; and

calculating second target torques by adding the gravity compensation torques to the first target torques,

wherein the target torques are the second target torque.

36. The method of claim 35, further comprising calculating third target torques by adding damping torques in proportion to angular velocities of the respective joints to the second target torques calculated, wherein the target torques are the third target torque.

37. The method of claim 35, further comprising calculating distance rates between a projection point of the COG of the robot on the ground and a plurality of feet of the robot, and distributing the calculated compensation moments to the plurality of legs by allotting a larger value of the compensation moment to a leg closer to the projection point of the COG of the robot on the ground using the calculated distance rates.

38. The method of claim 37, wherein the calculating of the first target torques comprises calculating the first target torques required by the plurality of legs of the robot from the compensation moments distributed to the plurality of legs using a Jacobian regarding the feet of the robot as bases.