8 accepted papers
In this paper, we introduce a kinodynamic model predictive control (MPC) framework that exploits unidirectional parallel springs (UPS) to improve the energy efficiency of dynamic legged robots. The proposed method employs a hierarchical control structure, where the solution of MPC with simplified dy
This paper introduces HOPPY, an open-source, low-cost, robust, and modular kit for robotics education. The robot dynamically hops around a rotating gantry with a fixed base. The kit is intended to lower the entry barrier for studying dynamic robots and legged locomotion with real systems. It bridges…
This paper proposes a hybrid planning framework that generates complex dynamic motion plans for jumping legged robots to traverse challenging terrains. By employing a motion primitive, the original problem is decoupled as path planning followed by a trajectory optimization (TO) module that handles d…
This paper proposes a kinodynamic motion plan-ning framework for multi-legged robot jumping based on the mixed-integer convex program (MICP), which simultaneously reasons about centroidal motion, contact points, wrench, and gait sequences. This method uniquely combines configuration space discretiza…
This paper presents a new Model Predictive Control (MPC) framework for controlling various dynamic movements of a quadrupedal robot. System dynamics are represented by linearizing single rigid body dynamics in three-dimensional (3D) space. Our formulation linearizes rotation matrices without resorti…
In this letter, we present qpSWIFT, a real-time quadratic program (QP) solver. Motivated by the need for a robust embedded QP solver in robotic applications, qpSWIFT employs standard primal-dual interior-point method, along with Mehrotra predictor–corrector steps and Nesterov–Todd scaling. The spars
This paper proposes a mixed-integer convex programming formulation for dynamic motion planning. Many dynamic constraints such as the actuator torque constraint are nonlinear and non-convex due to the trigonometrical terms from the Jacobian matrix. This often causes the optimization problem to conver…
This paper introduces a novel method for actuator design that exploits electromagnetic motors' torque and speed potential in jumping applications. We proposed a nonlinear optimization process that integrates (a) the control design to obtain the optimal ground reaction force, and (b) the mechanical d…