A kinodynamic steering-method for legged multi-contact locomotion

Abstract

We present a novel method for synthesizing collision-free, dynamic locomotion behaviors for legged robots, including jumping, going down a very steep slope, or recovering from a push using the arms of the robot. The approach is automatic and generic: non-gaited motions, comprising arbitrary contact postures can be generated along any environment. At the core of our framework is a new steering method that generates trajectories connecting two states of the robot. These trajectories account for the state-dependent, centroidal dynamic constraints inherent to legged robots. The method, of low dimension, formulated as a Linear Program, is really efficient to compute, and can find an application in various problems related to legged locomotion. By incorporating this steering method into an existing sampling-based contact planner, we propose the first kinodynamic contact planner for legged robots.