Abstract:
This work aims to expand the abilities of humanoid robots, by implementing
ying
capabilities to the robot. Humanoid robots are designed to mimic the kinematics of a
human, i.e. two arms, two legs, and a head. With this structure, humanoid robots can
be designed and programmed to perform a variety of tasks. Some examples of full-body
humanoid robots include Hubo [1], NAO [2], iCub [3] [4] (an open-source cognitive humanoid
robotic platform), Atlas [5] by Boston dynamics, Honda's ASIMO [6], and Valkyrie [7] from
NASA. Some examples of upper body humanoid robots, humanoid robots with wheels and
tracks instead of legs, include Handle [8] by Boston Dynamics and Mitra [9] by Invento
Robotics. Increasing mobility options for humanoid robot makes them more versatile.
In this work, we focus on adding a mobility option of
ying to the humanoid robot.
This was done by adding thrusters to the end-e ectors of its high Degrees of Freedom
(DoF) robotic arms and using control methodology for stabilization. Speci cally, in this
work, we study the ability of the latter robot to stabilize over the rotation in the x-axis. To
test our algorithms, we built the physical robot via additive and subtractive manufacturing
methods. We utilized computer-aided design (CAD) as well as computer-aided machining
(CAM) for manufacturing the robot. This resulted in a 6-DOF upper body of a humanoid
robot with ducted fans on its end-e ectors that operates in the coronal plane. A test xture
that allows for full motion of the robot and ground truth measurement was also created.
We used system identi cation to create a mathematical model of the dynamics of the robot.
This model was then used to design a controller for stabilization over the x-axis. We applied
this controller in a simulation, then con rmed our results with the physical robot. In the
results, we were able to achieve stability over the x-axis with an overshoot of about 30%
and a settling time of approximately 1.12 seconds in simulation. On the robot the settling
time is about 8 secs with no overshoot.
