Biorobotics Laboratory BioRob

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Pascal Cominoli: Development of a physical simulation of a real humanoid robot

The goal of this diploma project was the development of a physical simulation of the Fujitsu HOAP-2 robot.

The Swiss Federal Institute of Technology purchased one HOAP-2 during the summer 2004. So it was really important to develop a simulator for this robot. Performing tests on the real robot could damage it, depending on the kinds of things one is doing. And knowing the price of such a robot, one could really easily understand that a simulator is necessary. The real robot needs to be handled carefully, calibrations need to be done. There is no such issues on a simulated robot. If one performs a mistake with a simulated robot, just reload the simulation, and everything is fine. There is no calibrations, no problems of simultaneous access to one robot shared by many people. It also allows someone not having access to a robot, like a stand alone student or small universities, to perform good simulations.

This simulator will be used for performing for example walking controllers, or various manipulations, that could be dangerous or hazardous if they were performed first on the real robot. After a validated test on the simulator ­ meaning that the real robot will not suffer any harm, the user could then upload its controller on the real robot. The simulator could also be used to do genetics evolution much faster than on the real robot. On a good computer, simulation can run up to ten times real time, what is unrealizable on a real robot.

HOAP-2 first walk

HOAP-2 second walk

HOAP-2 standing up after lying on its elbows

HOAP-2 standing up after lying on its back

HOAP-2 performing sumo moves

Movies postures (statical tests)