Damage reduction control for humanoid robot fall
AssigneeHonda Motor Co., Ltd.
InventorsSung-Hee Lee, Ambarish Goswami
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
A humanoid robot fall controller controls motion of a robot to minimize damage when it determines that a fall is unavoidable. The robot controller detects a state of the robot during the fall and determines a desired rotational velocity that will allow the robot to re-orient itself during the fall to land on a predetermined target body segment (e.g., a backpack). The predetermined target body segment can be specially designed to absorb the impact of the fall and protect important components of the robot.
Claims20
A computer-implemented method for controlling a robot during a fall, the method comprising:
- receiving, by a robot controller, a detected state of the robot;
- determining based on the detected state that a fall of the robot is unavoidable;
- responsive to determining that the fall of the robot is unavoidable, determining a desired rotational velocity of the robot that would cause the robot to impact the ground with a predetermined target body segment making first contact with the ground given the detected state of the robot;
- generating a control signal to control motion of the robot during the fall based on the desired rotational velocity;
- and
- outputting the control signal to actuators of the robot to cause the robot to rotate based on the desired rotational velocity such that the predetermined target body segment makes first contact with the ground.
A non-transitory computer-readable storage medium for storing computer program instructions for controlling a robot during a fall, the program instructions when executed by a processor cause the processor to perform steps including:
- receiving, by a robot controller, a detected state of the robot;
- determining based on the detected state that a fall of the robot is unavoidable;
- responsive to determining that the fall of the robot is unavoidable, determining a desired rotational velocity of the robot that would cause the robot to impact the ground with a predetermined target body segment making first contact with the ground given the detected state of the robot;
- and
- generating a control signal to control motion of the robot during the fall based on the desired rotational velocity;
- and
- outputting the control signal to actuators of the robot to cause the robot to rotate based on the desired rotational velocity such that the predetermined target body segment makes first contact with the ground.
A robot controller for controlling a robot during a fall, the robot controller comprising:
- a plurality of sensors determining detecting a state of the robot;
- a high level controller receiving sensed information from the plurality of sensors and determining that a fall of the robot is unavoidable based on the detected state;
- and
- a fall controller controlling motion of the robot responsive to the high-level controller determining that the fall is unavoidable, the fall controller determining a desired rotational velocity of the robot that would cause the robot to impact the ground with a predetermined target body segment making first contact with the ground given the detected state of the robot, generating a control signal to control motion of the robot during the fall based on the desired rotational velocity, and outputting the control signal to actuators of the robot to cause the robot to rotate based on the desired rotational velocity such that the predetermined target body segment makes first contact with the ground.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.