Template-based manipulation in unstructured environments for supervised semi-autonomous humanoid robots

Romay, Alberto; Kohlbrecher, Stefan; Conner, David C.; Stumpf, Alexander; Stryk, Oskar von

doi:10.1109/humanoids.2014.7041482

Cited by 18 publications

(15 citation statements)

References 18 publications

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“…has no knowledge of adjustments made by the Motion System to maintain balance, which thus violates the underlying assumption of a static base throughout execution. To address these challenges, a template‐based approach provides an interface for specifying sequences of actions to perform for completion of complex manipulation tasks (Romay, Kohlbrecher, Conner, Stumpf, & von Stryk, ). This system includes an infrastructure for defining a database of object templates containing a set of parametrized actions pertaining to each object, such as moving the end effector through affordance trajectories (e.g., twist, rotate, pull) or to an adjacent pose relative to the object location.…”

Section: Software Architecturementioning

confidence: 99%

“…Team VALOR utilized a template‐based approach based on the work done by Romay et al. in order to create an interface for specifying sequences of actions to perform (Romay et al., ). This system defined a database of object templates that associates sets of parametrized grasps, affordance actions (e.g., twist, rotate, pull), and stand poses unique to each object.…”

Section: Software Architecturementioning

confidence: 99%

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Team VALOR's ESCHER: A Novel Electromechanical Biped for the DARPA Robotics Challenge

Knabe

Griffin

Burton

et al. 2017

Journal of Field Robotics

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The Electric Series Compliant Humanoid for Emergency Response (ESCHER) platform represents the culmination of four years of development at Virginia Tech to produce a full‐sized force‐controlled humanoid robot capable of operating in unstructured environments. ESCHER's locomotion capability was demonstrated at the DARPA Robotics Challenge (DRC) Finals when it successfully navigated the 61 m loose dirt course. Team VALOR, a Track A team, developed ESCHER leveraging and improving upon bipedal humanoid technologies implemented in previous research efforts, specifically for traversing uneven terrain and sustained untethered operation. This paper presents the hardware platform, software, and control systems developed to field ESCHER at the DRC Finals. ESCHER's unique features include custom linear series elastic actuators in both single and dual actuator configurations and a whole‐body control framework supporting compliant locomotion across variable and shifting terrain. A high‐level software system designed using the robot operating system integrated various open‐source packages and interfaced with the existing whole‐body motion controller. The paper discusses a detailed analysis of challenges encountered during the competition, along with lessons learned that are critical for transitioning research contributions to a fielded robot. Empirical data collected before, during, and after the DRC Finals validate ESCHER's performance in fielded environments.

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Section: Software Architecturementioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Software Architecturementioning

confidence: 99%

Team VALOR's ESCHER: A Novel Electromechanical Biped for the DARPA Robotics Challenge

Knabe

Griffin

Burton

et al. 2017

Journal of Field Robotics

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…Our implementation of object templates was introduced in Romay et al. () as a means of interaction between a human operator and a remote semiautonomous robot. Object templates are used to provide the remote robot with information about the objects of interest that the operator identifies on the sensor data acquired from the real world.…”

Section: Manipulation Planning and Interactionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…After the development phase between the VRC and the DRC Trials, we evolved our object template approach to provide information about the functionality of the object. This brought the concept of affordances (Gibson, ; Şahin, Çakmak, Doğar, Uğur, & Üçoluk, ) to the OT approach in order to be able to define information about how the object should be manipulated (Romay et al., ). In addition, we developed the concept of usability .…”

Section: Manipulation Planning and Interactionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…For this reason, we developed an object‐centered manipulation control approach based on the concept of affordances (Gibson, ) on top of our manipulation planning layer. This manipulation control approach uses an implementation of object templates (Romay, Kohlbrecher, Conner, Stumpf, & von Stryk, ) as entities to represent real objects that can provide the remote robot with the necessary information to generate motion planning trajectories and manipulate such objects. Object templates are virtual representations of real objects in the form of three‐dimensional (3D) meshes that a human operator can manipulate using a graphical user interface that is part of our operator control station (OCS), where the robot model and the sensor data from the remote environment is simultaneously displayed.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Collaborative Autonomy between High‐level Behaviors and Human Operators for Remote Manipulation Tasks using Different Humanoid Robots

Romay

Kohlbrecher

Stumpf

et al. 2016

Journal of Field Robotics

Self Cite

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Team ViGIR and Team Hector participated in the DARPA Robotics Challenge (DRC) Finals, held June 2015 in Pomona, California, along with 21 other teams from around the world. Both teams competed using the same high‐level software, in conjunction with independently developed low‐level software specific to their humanoid robots. On the basis of previous work on operator‐centric manipulation control at the level of affordances, we developed an approach that allows one or more human operators to share control authority with a high‐level behavior controller. This collaborative autonomy decreases the completion time of manipulation tasks, increases the reliability of the human‐robot team, and allows the operators to adjust the robotic system's autonomy on‐the‐fly. This article discusses the technical challenges we faced and overcame during our efforts to allow the human operators to interact with the robotic system at a higher level of abstraction and share control authority with it. We introduce and evaluate the proposed approach in the context of our two teams' participation in the DRC Finals. We also present additional, systematic experiments conducted in the lab afterward. Finally, we present a discussion about the lessons learned while transitioning between operator‐centered manipulation control and behavior‐centered manipulation control during competition.

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Collaborative Autonomy Between High-Level Behaviors and Human Operators for Control of Complex Tasks with Different Humanoid Robots

Conner

Kohlbrecher

Schillinger

et al. 2018

Springer Tracts in Advanced Robotics

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Template-based manipulation in unstructured environments for supervised semi-autonomous humanoid robots

Cited by 18 publications

References 18 publications

Team VALOR's ESCHER: A Novel Electromechanical Biped for the DARPA Robotics Challenge

Team VALOR's ESCHER: A Novel Electromechanical Biped for the DARPA Robotics Challenge

Collaborative Autonomy between High‐level Behaviors and Human Operators for Remote Manipulation Tasks using Different Humanoid Robots

Collaborative Autonomy Between High-Level Behaviors and Human Operators for Control of Complex Tasks with Different Humanoid Robots

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