Balance control for the Newcastle Bull dog terrier
Introduction
A RoboCup© soccer league competition was started to increase research in
robotics, with the overall goal of developing a team of humanoid robots to win the
official human World Soccer Championship in year 2050.
The SONY© AIBO’s are used as players in the Four-Legged League of the
RoboCup© competition. In this league a team consists of four SONY© AIBO’s. A
match consists of two teams playing on a 4 times 6m field, where the robot dogs
work autonomously without any external influence.
Each year a world cup championship for the RoboCup© takes place. Victory in
the Four-Legged League gives much prestige, therefore many universities
participate.
The RoboCup© looks for an alternative robot dog to replace the SONY© AIBO.
There are several different organizations competing to get their dog selected to
be the new dog type in the Four-Legged League. The organization behind the
chosen dog type will then earn money by selling the new robot dog specifically
for the Four-Legged League. All the teams that are participating will then have to
buy a minimum of four dogs. The University of Newcastle is one of these
organizations attempting to have their design accepted as the new standard
platform for the Four-Legged League.
Problem
The design team have some experience in moving a robot dog from the AIBO’s
in earlier RoboCup©’s. Here the balance of the robot dog was a problem, and
was dealt with by making the robot dog crawl on the knees of its front legs. This
lowered the Center of Mass (CM) thereby made the robot more stable. The
crawling on the knees also made the movement slow. To make the dog run fast it
has to walk/run on its feet.
The Center of Mass (CM) of the NBT is constantly changing when the legs or
head moves; this makes the model parameter varying. The parameter change is
controlled by the angle of the body, which can change discreetly; therefore the
parameter variating model is seen as a hybrid system.
Scope
Make the balance controller for the NBT, which considers the changes of model
parameters. This shall include a supervisory controller shifting between different
controllers dependent on which there are most optimal.
Resources
The project builds on top of the project made by Mikael Berg Andersen doing his
visit to the University of Newcastle, Australia in second part of 2006.
Supervisors
Jakob Stoustrup
jakob@es.aau.dk
Jan Helbo
Jan@es.aau.dk