Golem Krang

Conference

• 2010
• Pushkar Kolhe, Neil T. Dantam, and Mike Stilman Dynamic Pushing Strategies for Dynamically Stable Mobile Manipulators IEEE International Conference on Robotics and Automation. 2010.

  Abstract BibTeX PDF

  This paper presents three effective manipulation strategies for wheeled, dynamically balancing robots with articulated links. By comparing these strategies through analysis, simulation and robot experiments, we show that contact placement and body posture have a significant impact on the robot's ability to accelerate and displace environment objects. Given object geometry and friction parameters we determine the most effective methods for utilizing wheel torque to perform non-prehensile manipulation.

  @inproceedings{kolhe2010dynamic,
    title = {Dynamic Pushing Strategies for Dynamically Stable Mobile Manipulators},
    pages = {3745--3750},
    month = {May},
    booktitle = {IEEE International Conference on Robotics and Automation},
    author = {Pushkar Kolhe and Neil T. Dantam and Mike Stilman},
    year = {2010}
  }
  

• Mike Stilman, Jon Olson, and William Gloss Golem Krang: Dynamically Stable Humanoid Robot for Mobile Manipulation IEEE International Conference on Robotics and Automation. 2010.

  Abstract BibTeX PDF

  What would humans be like if nature had invented the wheel? Golem Krang is a novel humanoid torso designed at Georgia Tech. The robot dynamically transforms from a .5 m static to a 1.5 m dynamic configuration. Our robot development has led to two advances in the design of platforms for mobility and manipulation: (1) A 2-DOF robot base that autonomously stands from horizontal rest; (2) A 4-DOF humanoid torso that adds a waist roll joint to replicate human torso folding and a yaw joint for spine rotation. The mobile torso also achieves autonomous standing in a constrained space while lifting a 40 kg payload. Golem validates our assertions by consistently achieving static-dynamic transformations. This paper describes the design of our mobile torso. It considers a number of factors including its suitability for human environments, mechanical simplicity and the ability to store potential and kinetic energy for handling heavy human and even super-human tasks

  @inproceedings{stilman2010golem,
    title = {Golem Krang: Dynamically Stable Humanoid Robot for Mobile Manipulation},
    pages = {3304--3309},
    month = {May},
    booktitle = {IEEE International Conference on Robotics and Automation},
    author = {Mike Stilman and Olson, Jon and Gloss, William},
    year = {2010}
  }
  

• Kasemsit Teeyapan, Jiuguang Wang, Tobias Kunz, and Mike Stilman Robot Limbo: Optimized Planning and Control for Dynamically Stable Robots Under Vertical Obstacles IEEE International Conference on Robotics and Automation. 2010.

  Abstract BibTeX PDF

  We present successful control strategies for dynamically stable robots that avoid low ceilings and other vertical obstacles in a manner similar to limbo dances. Given the parameters of the mission, including the goal and obstacle dimensions, our method uses a sequential composition of IOlinearized controllers and applies stochastic optimization to automatically compute the best controller gains and references, as well as the times for switching between the different controllers. We demonstrate this system through numerical simulations, validation in a physics-based simulation environment, as well as on a novel two-wheeled platform. The results show that the generated control strategies are successful in mission planning for this challenging problem domain and offer significant advantages over hand-tuned alternative

  @inproceedings{teeyapan2010limbo,
    title = {Robot Limbo: Optimized Planning and Control for Dynamically Stable Robots Under Vertical Obstacles},
    pages = {4519--4524},
    month = {May},
    booktitle = {IEEE International Conference on Robotics and Automation},
    author = {Teeyapan, Kasemsit and Jiuguang Wang and Tobias Kunz and Mike Stilman},
    year = {2010}
  }
  

• 2009
• Mike Stilman, Jiuguang Wang, Kasemsit Teeyapan, and Ray Marceau Optimized Control Strategies for Wheeled Humanoids and Mobile Manipulators IEEE/RAS International Conference on Humanoid Robotics. 2009. Best Paper Finalist

  Abstract BibTeX PDF

  Optimizing the control of articulated mobile robots leads to emergent behaviors that improve the effectiveness, efficiency and stability of wheeled humanoids and dynamically stable mobile manipulators. Our simulated results show that optimization over the target pose, height and control parameters results in effective strategies for standing, acceleration and deceleration. These strategies improve system performance by orders of magnitude over existing controllers. This paper presents a simple controller for robot motion and an optimization method for choosing its parameters. By using whole-body articulation, we achieve new skills such as standing and unprecedented levels of performance for acceleration and deceleration of the robot base. We describe a new control architecture, present a method for optimization, and illustrate its functionality through two distinct methods of simulation

  @inproceedings{stilman2009optimized,
    title = {Optimized Control Strategies for Wheeled Humanoids and Mobile Manipulators},
    pages = {568--573},
    month = {December},
    booktitle = {IEEE/RAS International Conference on Humanoid Robotics},
    author = {Mike Stilman and Jiuguang Wang and Teeyapan, Kasemsit and Marceau, Ray},
    year = {2009}
  }
  

Technical Reports

• Neil T. Dantam, Pushkar Kolhe, and Mike Stilman Equations of Motion for Dynamically Stable Mobile Manipulators no. GT-GOLEM-2010-002. Georgia Institute of Technology, Atlanta, GA. 2010.

  Abstract BibTeX PDF

  Equations of motion for dynamically stable mobile manipulation

  @techreport{dantam2010equations,
    title = {Equations of Motion for Dynamically Stable Mobile Manipulators},
    number = {GT-GOLEM-2010-002},
    institution = {Georgia Institute of Technology, Atlanta, GA},
    author = {Neil T. Dantam and Pushkar Kolhe and Mike Stilman},
    year = {2010}
  }