Skaterbots: Optimization-based design and motion synthesis for robotic creatures with legs and wheels
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Date
2018-08-04
Publication Type
Conference Paper
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yes
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Abstract
We present a computation-driven approach to design optimization and motion synthesis for robotic creatures that locomote using arbitrary arrangements of legs and wheels. Through an intuitive interface, designers first create unique robots by combining different types of servomotors, 3D printable connectors, wheels and feet in a mix-and-match manner. With the resulting robot as input, a novel trajectory optimization formulation generates walking, rolling, gliding and skating motions. These motions emerge naturally based on the components used to design each individual robot. We exploit the particular structure of our formulation and make targeted simplifications to significantly accelerate the underlying numerical solver without compromising quality. This allows designers to interactively choreograph stable, physically-valid motions that are agile and compelling. We furthermore develop a suite of user-guided, semi-automatic, and fully-automatic optimization tools that enable motion-aware edits of the robot's physical structure. We demonstrate the efficacy of our design methodology by creating a diverse array of hybrid legged/wheeled mobile robots which we validate using physics simulation and through fabricated prototypes.
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Publication status
published
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Book title
Journal / series
Volume
37 (4)
Pages / Article No.
1
Publisher
Association for Computing Machinery
Event
SIGGRAPH 2018
Edition / version
Methods
Software
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Date collected
Date created
Subject
computational design; mobile robots; animation; physical characters
Organisational unit
09620 - Coros, Stelian / Coros, Stelian
02284 - NFS Digitale Fabrikation / NCCR Digital Fabrication