Reaction wheel systems for fall direction control in dynamically stable robots and related technology

Abstract

A robot system is provided herein. The robot system includes a locomotion base configured to support the robot system and a torso carried by the locomotion base. The robot system further includes at least one reaction wheel mounted within the torso. The robot system further includes a sensor suite configured to detect environmental conditions including at least one of a presence of one or more humans, obstacles, or safe zones. The robot system further includes a safety controller configured to monitor the environmental conditions detected by the sensor suite, determine a safe fall direction based on the environmental conditions, detect a fault condition, and upon detecting the fault condition, actuate the at least one reaction wheel to generate a biasing torque that influences a fall trajectory of the robot system toward the safe fall direction.

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.