Management of multiple modes for humanoid robot

A method for managing operational modes of a humanoid robot, the method comprising:

• defining a plurality of stateless controllers, each associated with a predefined operational domain that defines a subset of a robot state-space wherein the controller is valid;
• defining at least one composable mode comprising a composable structure of two or more of the stateless controllers, arranged from a highest priority to a lowest priority;
• and
• executing a control loop wherein, for each control cycle:
• iterating through the composable structure of an active composable mode, commencing from the highest-priority stateless controller;
• selecting a first stateless controller encountered whose predefined operational domain includes a current state of the humanoid robot;
• and
• executing only the selected stateless controller to control the humanoid robot for the duration of the control cycle.

A method for managing operational mode transitions in a humanoid robot, the method comprising:

• receiving, at a mode manager, a request to transition from a current operational mode to a requested operational mode;
• in response to the request, performing a stability check to verify if the humanoid robot is in a predefined stable state;
• in response to the stability check failing, executing a corrective action to command the humanoid robot to actively move into the predefined stable state;
• and
• gating the transition by switching control from the current operational mode to the requested operational mode only after the humanoid robot is verified to be in the predefined stable state, either from the initial stability check or following completion of the corrective action.