Pseudo-Locomotion Design with a Quadrotor-Assisted Biped Robot

Abstract

Real-world mechanical characters play an important role in our daily lives and provide rich experiences. This study presents a novel approach to develop a biped robot that has the ability to display walking appearance with dynamic mobility, regardless of its environment. We utilize a quadrotor as an overhead tether to provide mobility and stability. Using the thrust of the rotors, we developed a biped robot for entertainment purpose. It is able to move agilely using novel foot trajectory generation. This method focuses on the velocity of the robot's foot that is in contact with the ground. The control policy is designed to generate in the robot's legs such that it reduces the velocity of the foot in contact with the ground to zero. The policy used for the foot trajectory generation is trained by deep reinforcement learning with a physics-based simulator.