Planning contact points for humanoid robots

• Published in: Robotics and autonomous systems Vol. 61; no. 5; pp. 428 - 442
• Main Authors: Escande, Adrien, Kheddar, Abderrahmane, Miossec, Sylvain
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Elsevier B.V 01.05.2013; Elsevier
• Subjects: Autonomous; Computer Science; Contact; Heuristic; Humanoid; Humanoid robot; Movement; Multi-contact planning; Posture optimization; Robotics; Robots; Multi-contact planning; Posture optimization; Humanoid robot
• ISSN: 0921-8890; 1872-793X
• DOI: 10.1016/j.robot.2013.01.008

We present a planner for underactuated hyper-redundant robots, such as humanoid robots, for which the movement can only be initiated by taking contacts with the environment. We synthesize our previous work on the subject and go further into details to give an in-depth description of the contact planning problem and the mechanisms of our contact planner. We highlight the structure of the problem with a simple example, present the contact space and the heuristics we use for planning, and explain thoroughly the implementation of the different parts of the planner. Finally we give examples of planning results for complex scenarios with the humanoid robot HRP-2. ► We present a contact planner for underactuated redundant robots as humanoid robots. ► We show the structure of the contact planning problem with an example. ► We detail the specificities and concepts of our planner. ► We thoroughly describe and discuss the implementation of its component. ► We present its outcome for complex scenarios with an HRP-2 robot.