Safety-critical control of quadrupedal robots with rolling arms for autonomous inspection of complex environments

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Authors
Lee, Jaemin
Kim, Jeeseop
Ubellacker, Wyatt
Molnar, Tamas G.
Ames, Aaron D.
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Issue Date
2024
Type
Conference paper
Keywords
Location awareness , Uncertainty , Service robots , Navigation , Inspection , Manipulators , Safety
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Citation
J. Lee, J. Kim, W. Ubellacker, T. G. Molnar and A. D. Ames, "Safety-critical Control of Quadrupedal Robots with Rolling Arms for Autonomous Inspection of Complex Environments," 2024 IEEE International Conference on Robotics and Automation (ICRA), Yokohama, Japan, 2024, pp. 3485-3491, doi: 10.1109/ICRA57147.2024.10610504
Abstract

This paper presents a safety-critical control framework tailored for quadruped robots equipped with a roller arm, particularly when performing locomotive tasks such as autonomous robotic inspection in complex, multi-tiered environments. In this study, we consider the problem of operating a quadrupedal robot in distillation columns, locomoting on column trays and transitioning between these trays with a roller arm. To address this problem, our framework encompasses the following key elements: 1) Trajectory generation for seamless transitions between columns, 2) Foothold re-planning in regions deemed unsafe, 3) Safety-critical control incorporating control barrier functions, 4) Gait transitions based on safety levels, and 5) A low-level controller. Our comprehensive framework, comprising these components, enables autonomous and safe locomotion across multiple layers. We incorporate reduced-order and full-body models to ensure safety, integrating safety-critical control and footstep re-planning approaches. We validate the effectiveness of our proposed framework through practical experiments involving a quadruped robot equipped with a roller arm, successfully navigating and transitioning between different levels within the column tray structure.

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Description
Date of Conference: 13-17 May 2024 Date Added to IEEE Xplore: 08 August 2024
Conference Location: Yokohama, Japan
Publisher
IEEE
Journal
2024 IEEE International Conference on Robotics and Automation (ICRA)
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