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Morphing End-Effector for a Legged Robot
In this project, the student will develop a morphing end-effector for the leg of the ANYmal quadrupedal robot. The end-effector should change its shape depending on the desired task, enabling locomotion and manipulation in challenging environments.
Existing quadruped robots can effectively walk over varied terrain but have limited abilities to adapt to different tasks beyond typical locomotion. Recently, researchers have endowed legged robots with manipulation capabilities by mounting an articulated robotic arm on a quadruped base. This approach has yielded some success; as one example, a robot could open and close a door by grasping the handle [1]. Mounting an arm atop the robot comes with the downsides of increased mass, bulk, and control complexity of the system. To enable diverse manipulation tasks while retaining agile robot behavior, we propose to integrate a morphing end-effector onto the existing legs of an ANYmal platform. The end-effector should morph between a stiff configuration that sustains the robot’s body weight during locomotion and a soft, adaptive gripper that enables various manipulation skills (as a minimal example, see [2]). In this project, we expect the student to complete a full prototype development cycle, starting with a literature review and concept evaluation, and moving on to the design, manufacturing, integration, and testing of the morphing end-effector.
References:
[1] Sleiman, Jean-Pierre, et al. "A unified mpc framework for whole-body dynamic locomotion and manipulation." IEEE RA-L (2021).
[2] E. Brown et al., “Universal robotic gripper based on the jamming of granular material,” Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (2010).
Existing quadruped robots can effectively walk over varied terrain but have limited abilities to adapt to different tasks beyond typical locomotion. Recently, researchers have endowed legged robots with manipulation capabilities by mounting an articulated robotic arm on a quadruped base. This approach has yielded some success; as one example, a robot could open and close a door by grasping the handle [1]. Mounting an arm atop the robot comes with the downsides of increased mass, bulk, and control complexity of the system. To enable diverse manipulation tasks while retaining agile robot behavior, we propose to integrate a morphing end-effector onto the existing legs of an ANYmal platform. The end-effector should morph between a stiff configuration that sustains the robot’s body weight during locomotion and a soft, adaptive gripper that enables various manipulation skills (as a minimal example, see [2]). In this project, we expect the student to complete a full prototype development cycle, starting with a literature review and concept evaluation, and moving on to the design, manufacturing, integration, and testing of the morphing end-effector. References: [1] Sleiman, Jean-Pierre, et al. "A unified mpc framework for whole-body dynamic locomotion and manipulation." IEEE RA-L (2021). [2] E. Brown et al., “Universal robotic gripper based on the jamming of granular material,” Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (2010).
- Literature review on soft morphing end-effectors
- Concept development of the morphing end-effector
- Design and manufacturing
- Integration and testing on our ANYmal robot
- Literature review on soft morphing end-effectors - Concept development of the morphing end-effector - Design and manufacturing - Integration and testing on our ANYmal robot
- Highly motivated and independent student
- Experience with CAD and rapid prototyping
- Experience with robotic hardware is a plus
- Highly motivated and independent student - Experience with CAD and rapid prototyping - Experience with robotic hardware is a plus
