Methods for robotic self-righting

US8977485B2 · kind B2 · utility

Assignee

• The United States of America as represented by the Secretary of the Army · US

Inventors

• Chad C. Kessens · Rosedale, US
• Daniel C. Smith · London, GB

Key dates

• Filing date: Mar 15, 2013
• Grant date: Mar 10, 2015
• Expiry date: Apr 18, 2033

Classification

• Technology area (CPC G): Physics
• CPC primary: G05B2219/40465
• WIPO field: Control
• WIPO sector: Instruments

Abstract

Embodiments of the present invention are directed to methods of autonomously self-righting a maneuverable robot. In one embodiment, an autonomous method for self-righting a maneuverable robot to affect recovery from an overturned state to its nominal upright configuration may include: defining a convex hull and center of mass of each link of the robot; determining the convex hull and overall robot center of mass for each joint configuration of the robot; analyzing each convex hull face to determine its stability or instability; grouping continuously stable orientations of the robot and joint configurations together defining nodes and transitions there between; assigning a cost to transitions between nodes; computing an overall cost for each potential set of transition costs resulting in achievement of the goal; and determining a sequence of one or more actions to self-right the robot such that the sequence of actions minimizes the overall cost of self-righting the robot.