Biorobotics Laboratory BioRob

Print

Ordinary Differential Equations Framework for the Robotic Dog AIBO

Winter semester project 2004-2005
Supervision: Jonas Buchli and Auke Jan Ijspeert

Abstract

Non-linear dynamical systems offer new and creative possibilities for the locomotion of legged robots. Their interesting properties include resistance to perturbations, attractors and synchronization with other systems or external input. These properties can be exploited to design a new generation of robot controllers. However, finding the right system parameters to obtain a given property is far from being trivial. To explore the immense space of possible configuration, it would be desirable to have software tools to test one's ideas both in simulation and on a real robot.

In this project, we aim to develop a software framework to allow complete online control of the AIBO robot with dynamical systems. The same code should be used for both simulation and real world experiments. Thanks to the previous projects of Lukas Hohl, a tight integration between the Webots simulator and Sony's OPEN-R development kit is possible, allowing easy programming of robot controllers and transfer on the AIBO via a WLAN interface.

The system has been designed by following the guidelines of the Fondue method. It's functionning has been demonstrated by implementing an Amplitude Controlled Phase Oscillator (ACPO) synchronizing the oscillation of AIBO's front legs.

You can read the project report and the presentation slides.

Movies

Simulation without synchronization

Simulation with synchronization

Real robot with synchronization

Downloads

These documents are distributed under the terms of the GNU Free Documentation License and source code is distributed under the terms of the GNU General Public License.