Footstep contact detection
AssigneeBoston Dynamics, Inc.
InventorsEric Whitman, Alex Khripin
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
A method of footstep contact detection includes receiving joint dynamics for a swing leg of the robot where the swing leg performs a swing phase of a gait of the robot. The method also includes receiving odometry defining an estimation of a pose of the robot and determining whether an unexpected torque on the swing leg corresponds to an impact on the swing leg. When the unexpected torque corresponds to the impact, the method further includes determining whether the impact is indicative of a touchdown of the swing leg on a ground surface based on the odometry and the joint dynamics. When the impact is not indicative of the touchdown of the swing leg, the method includes classifying a cause of the impact based on the odometry of the robot and the joint dynamics of the swing leg.
Claims32
A method comprising:
- receiving, at data processing hardware of a robot, joint dynamics for a swing leg of the robot, the swing leg performing a swing phase of a gait of the robot;
- receiving, at the data processing hardware, odometry defining an estimation of a pose of the robot relative to a world reference frame;
- determining, by the data processing hardware, whether an unexpected torque on the swing leg corresponds to an impact on the swing leg;
- and
- when the unexpected torque on the swing leg corresponds to the impact:
- determining, by the data processing hardware, whether the impact is indicative of a touchdown of the swing leg on a ground surface about the robot based on a percent completion of the swing phase and the joint dynamics of the swing leg;
- and
- when the impact is not indicative of the touchdown of the swing leg, classifying, by the data processing hardware, a cause of the impact based on the odometry of the robot and the joint dynamics of the swing leg.
A robot comprising:
- a body;
- two or more legs coupled to the body and configured to traverse an environment, the two or more legs comprising a swing leg;
- and
- a control system in communication with the two or more legs, the control system comprising data processing hardware and memory hardware in communication with the data processing hardware, the memory hardware storing instructions that when executed on the data processing hardware cause the data processing hardware to perform operations comprising:
- receiving joint dynamics for the swing leg of the robot, the swing leg performing a swing phase of a gait of the robot;
- receiving odometry defining an estimation of a pose of the robot relative to a world reference frame;
- determining whether an unexpected torque on the swing leg corresponds to an impact on the swing leg;
- and
- when the unexpected torque on the swing leg corresponds to the impact:
- determining whether the impact is indicative of a touchdown of the swing leg on a ground surface about the robot based on a percent completion of the swing phase and the joint dynamics of the swing leg;
- and
- when the impact is not indicative of the touchdown of the swing leg, classifying a cause of the impact based on the odometry of the robot and the joint dynamics of the swing leg.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.