Rapid Trajectory Optimization Using C-FROST with Illustration on a Cassie-Series Dynamic Walking Biped

TL;DR

This paper introduces C-FROST, a multi-threaded C++ tool for rapid trajectory optimization of complex humanoid robots, demonstrated on a 20-DoF Cassie biped, enabling efficient gait design without simplifying robot models.

Contribution

The paper presents C-FROST, an open-source, multi-threaded optimization interface that accelerates trajectory planning for high-DoF humanoids without model reduction.

Findings

Rapid solutions for 20-DoF robot models achieved

Numerical calculations and physical experiments validate the approach

Open-source tool enhances gait design efficiency

Abstract

One of the big attractions of low-dimensional models for gait design has been the ability to compute solutions rapidly, whereas one of their drawbacks has been the difficulty in mapping the solutions back to the target robot. This paper presents a set of tools for rapidly determining solutions for ``humanoids'' without removing or lumping degrees of freedom. The main tools are (1) C-FROST, an open-source C++ interface for FROST, a direct collocation optimization tool; and (2) multi-threading. The results will be illustrated on a 20-DoF floating-base model for a Cassie-series bipedal robot through numerical calculations and physical experiments.