PANDORA: The Open-Source, Structurally Elastic Humanoid Robot

TL;DR

This paper introduces PANDORA, an open-source humanoid robot with a structurally elastic design using 3D-printed compliant materials, reducing costs and complexity while addressing control challenges.

Contribution

It presents the design, implementation, and control strategies of PANDORA, a novel structurally elastic humanoid robot built with 3D-printed compliant components, and demonstrates its balancing capabilities.

Findings

Successfully balances under disturbances

Demonstrates robustness in stepping behaviors

Highlights advantages of 3D-printed compliant structures

Abstract

In this work, the novel, open-source humanoid robot, PANDORA, is presented where a majority of the structural elements are manufactured using 3D-printed compliant materials. As opposed to contemporary approaches that incorporate the elastic element into the actuator mechanisms, PANDORA is designed to be compliant under load, or in other words, structurally elastic. This design approach lowers manufacturing cost and time, design complexity, and assembly time while introducing controls challenges in state estimation, joint and whole-body control. This work features an in-depth description on the mechanical and electrical subsystems including details regarding additive manufacturing benefits and drawbacks, usage and placement of sensors, and networking between devices. In addition, the design of structural elastic components and their effects on overall performance from an estimation and control perspective are discussed. Finally, results are presented which demonstrate the robot completing a robust balancing objective in the presence of disturbances and stepping behaviors.