Whole-Body Dynamic Telelocomotion: A Step-to-Step Dynamics Approach to Human Walking Reference Generation

TL;DR

This paper presents a novel step-to-step dynamics approach for whole-body telelocomotion, enabling real-time, synchronized walking control of humanoid robots by human pilots in hazardous environments.

Contribution

It introduces a hybrid virtual human walking interface and reactive control framework for dynamic, robust teleoperated bipedal locomotion.

Findings

Achieved real-time synchronization between human pilots and simulated bipedal robots.

Controlled walking speeds from 0.0 to 0.3 m/s, including backward walking.

Validated robustness and effectiveness through simulation experiments.

Abstract

Teleoperated humanoid robots hold significant potential as physical avatars for humans in hazardous and inaccessible environments, with the goal of channeling human intelligence and sensorimotor skills through these robotic counterparts. Precise coordination between humans and robots is crucial for accomplishing whole-body behaviors involving locomotion and manipulation. To progress successfully, dynamic synchronization between humans and humanoid robots must be achieved. This work enhances advancements in whole-body dynamic telelocomotion, addressing challenges in robustness. By embedding the hybrid and underactuated nature of bipedal walking into a virtual human walking interface, we achieve dynamically consistent walking gait generation. Additionally, we integrate a reactive robot controller into a whole-body dynamic telelocomotion framework. Thus, allowing the realization of telelocomotion behaviors on the full-body dynamics of a bipedal robot. Real-time telelocomotion simulation experiments validate the effectiveness of our methods, demonstrating that a trained human pilot can dynamically synchronize with a simulated bipedal robot, achieving sustained locomotion, controlling walking speeds within the range of 0.0 m/s to 0.3 m/s, and enabling backward walking for distances of up to 2.0 m. This research contributes to advancing teleoperated humanoid robots and paves the way for future developments in synchronized locomotion between humans and bipedal robots.