EPFL and ADVR engineers develop robots that walk naturally, like humans

although technological advancements in humanoid robotics have developed over the years, the one challenge researchers haven’t seem to overcome is replicating the natural movement which mimic humans. engineers from l’école polytechnique fédérale de lausanne’s biorobotics laboratory are testing new walking algorithms on a platform called COMAN, short for COmpliant HuMANoid. the robot’s hardware platform was built by ADVR (advanced robotics department) at the IIT (instituto italiano di tecnologia). this 95-cm-tall humanoid is designed specifically for studying walking, which is why it has no head.

researchers jessica lanini and hamed razavi studied how two people carrying an object together are able to walk, turn and speed up in a coordinated manner, without communicating with each other

one of COMAN’s distinguishing features is its joints which are integrated with elastic elements that give it greater flexibility when performing different tasks. the team of EPFL and ADVR researchers designed a novel control algorithm for the robot, based on the existing symmetries in the structure and dynamics of the robot, as well as the mathematical equations representing the robot dynamics. the control algorithm uses sophisticated computer programs to carefully analyze the date received from the robot – including its position, velocity, joint angles – and sends appropriate commands to the motors, telling them what to do in order to maintain the robot’s balance. 

the control algorithm uses sophisticated computer programs to carefully analyze the date received from the robot and sends appropriate commands to the motors

the algorithms developed by the skilled team of researchers are geared towards three types of real world applications: the first is carrying out rescue missions in disastrous scenarios, the second is helping with banal tasks like carrying heavy boxes or moving objects, and the third is creating exoskeletons for the disabled. ‘making the robots more stable is just the tip of the iceberg.’ says razavi, ‘the next step is refining the algorithms so that the humanoids have a wider range of movement and can overcome obstacles and walk on irregular or sloped surfaces.’

‘if someone pushes COMAN, for example, our algorithms will calculate exactly where its foot should land in order to counteract the perturbation,’ explains razavi