A Unified MPC Framework for Whole-Body Dynamic Locomotion and Manipulation


Date

2021-07

Publication Type

Journal Article

ETH Bibliography

yes

Citations

Altmetric

Data

Abstract

In this paper, we propose a whole-body planning framework that unifies dynamic locomotion and manipulation tasks by formulating a single multi-contact optimal control problem. We model the hybrid nature of a generic multi-limbed mobile manipulator as a switched system, and introduce a set of constraints that can encode any pre-defined gait sequence or manipulation schedule in the formulation. Since the system is designed to actively manipulate its environment, the equations of motion are composed by augmenting the robot's centroidal dynamics with the manipulated-object dynamics. This allows us to describe any high-level task in the same cost/constraint function. The resulting planning framework could be solved on the robot's onboard computer in real-time within a model predictive control scheme. This is demonstrated in a set of real hardware experiments done in free-motion, such as base or end-effector pose tracking, and while pushing/pulling a heavy resistive door. Robustness against model mismatches and external disturbances is also verified during these test cases.

Publication status

published

Editor

Book title

Volume

6 (3)

Pages / Article No.

4688 - 4695

Publisher

IEEE

Event

Edition / version

Methods

Software

Geographic location

Date collected

Date created

Subject

Multi-Contact Whole-Body Motion Planning and Control; Mobile Manipulation; Legged Robots; Optimization and Optimal Control; RSL; dfab; TenneT

Organisational unit

09570 - Hutter, Marco / Hutter, Marco check_circle
02284 - NFS Digitale Fabrikation / NCCR Digital Fabrication

Notes

Funding

Related publications and datasets