Controlling Robot Morphology from Incomplete Measurements

TL;DR

This paper presents a method for autonomous control of complex robot morphologies in rough terrains, handling incomplete data by marginalizing control and actively exploring to gather missing information for safety.

Contribution

It introduces a novel approach to control complex robots with incomplete measurements by marginalizing over missing data and using tactile exploration to ensure safety.

Findings

Effective control with incomplete terrain data

Safety condition evaluation guides exploration

Improved robustness in terrain traversal

Abstract

Mobile robots with complex morphology are essential for traversing rough terrains in Urban Search & Rescue missions (USAR). Since teleoperation of the complex morphology causes high cognitive load of the operator, the morphology is controlled autonomously. The autonomous control measures the robot state and surrounding terrain which is usually only partially observable, and thus the data are often incomplete. We marginalize the control over the missing measurements and evaluate an explicit safety condition. If the safety condition is violated, tactile terrain exploration by the body-mounted robotic arm gathers the missing data.