Novel Door-opening Method for Six-legged Robots Based on Only Force Sensing

• Published in: Chinese journal of mechanical engineering 2017-09, Vol.30 (5), p.1227-1238
• Main Authors: Chen, Zhi-Jun, Gao, Feng, Pan, Yang
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Detection; Electrical Machines and Networks; Electronics and Microelectronics; Engineering; Engineering Thermodynamics; Heat and Mass Transfer; Instrumentation; Machines; Manufacturing; Mechanical Engineering; Original Article; Power Electronics; Processes; Robot arms; Robots; Theoretical and Applied Mechanics; Trajectory planning; Vision systems; 传感检测; 六足机器人; 力觉; 双足机器人; 四足机器人; 开门; 测量模型; 轨迹规划
• ISSN: 1000-9345; 2192-8258
• DOI: 10.1007/s10033-017-0172-7

Current door-opening methods are mainly developed on tracked, wheeled and biped robots by applying multi-DOF manipulators and vision systems. However, door-opening methods for six-legged robots are seldom studied, especially using 0-DOF tools to operate and only force sensing to detect. A novel door-opening method for six-legged robots is developed and imple- mented to the six-parallel-legged robot. The kinematic model of the six-parallel-legged robot is established and the model of measuring the positional relationship between the robot and the door is proposed. The measurement model is completely based on only force sensing. The real- time trajectory planning method and the control strategy are designed. The trajectory planning method allows the maximum angle between the sagittal axis of the robot body and the normal line of the door plane to be 45°. A 0-DOF tool mounted to the robot body is applied to operate. By integrating with the body, the tool has 6 DOFs and enough workspace to operate. The loose grasp achieved by the tool helps release the inner force in the tool. Experiments are carried out to validate the method. The results show that the method is effective and robust in opening doors wider than 1 m. This paper proposes a novel door-opening method for six-legged robots, which notably uses a O-DOF tool and only force sensing to detect and open the door.