A framework for remote execution of whole body motions for humanoid robots

This paper introduces a framework for the remote execution of whole body motions for humanoid robots. Humanoid robots are biped machines which usually possess more than 20 degrees of freedom(D0F). The complexity of their multi-DOF structure and the difficulty in maintaining postural stability make the whole body operation of humanoid robots fundamentally different from traditional fixed-base manipulators or stable-base mobile manipulators. Getting hints from human conscious and subconscious motion generations, we propose a method of generating whole body motions which integrates operator’s command input and the robot’s autonomous functions. Instead of giving commands to all joints all the time, the operator selects only the necessary points of the humanoid robot’s body for manipulation. This paper first explains the concept of the system and the framework for integrating operator’s command and autonomous functions in whole body motion generation. Using the framework, we constructed autonomous functions for maintaining stability constraint while satisfying the desired trajectory of operation points and a workspace extension autonomy which changes utilization of body parts. Finally the paper reports on the implementation of the proposed method to teleoperate a 30 DOF humanoid robot HRP-2 using only two 3 DOF joysticks. Experiments teleoperating HRP-2 confirmed the effectiveness of the proposed method.