Torque-limited simple pendulum: A toolkit for getting
familiar with control algorithms in underactuated robotics

Wiebe, Felix; Babel, Jonathan; Kumar, Shivesh; Vyas, Shubham; Harnack, Daniel; Boukheddimi, Melya; Popescu, Mihaela; Kirchner, Frank

doi:10.21105/joss.03884

Cited by 6 publications

(1 citation statement)

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“…The simplicity of the robot's design, low maintenance requirements, and ease of controllability makes it a suitable platform for underactuated robotics education and research. The platform has been open-sourced 2 (in the spirit of [29]- [31]), to encourage its use in research and education. The performance of the AcroMonk in hardware tests is shown in the accompanying video 3 .…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

AcroMonk: A Minimalist Underactuated Brachiating Robot

Javadi

Harnack

Stocco

et al. 2023

IEEE Robot. Autom. Lett.

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Brachiation is a dynamic, coordinated swinging maneuver of body and arms used by monkeys and apes to move between branches. As a unique underactuated mode of locomotion, it is interesting to study from a robotics perspective since it can broaden the deployment scenarios for humanoids and animaloids. While several brachiating robots of varying complexity have been proposed in the past, this paper presents the simplest possible prototype of a brachiation robot, using only a single actuator and unactuated grippers. The novel passive gripper design allows it to snap on and release from monkey bars, while guaranteeing well defined start and end poses of the swing. The brachiation behavior is realized in three different ways, using trajectory optimization via direct collocation and stabilization by a model-based time-varying linear quadratic regulator (TVLQR) or model-free proportional derivative (PD) control, as well as by a reinforcement learning (RL) based control policy. The three control schemes are compared in terms of robustness to disturbances, mass uncertainty, and energy consumption. The system design and controllers have been open-sourced 1 . Due to its minimal and open design, the system can serve as a canonical underactuated platform for education and research.

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Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%