Humanoid robot teleoperation for tasks with power tools

Abstract

This paper presents the implementation of inverse kinematics to achieve teleoperation of a physical humanoid robot platform. The humanoid platform will be used to compete in the DARPA Robot Challenge, which requires autonomous execution of various search and rescue tasks, such as cutting through walls, which is a very practical application to robotics. Using a closed-form kinematic solution and a basic feedback controller, our objective of executing simple tasks is realized via teleoperation. Joint limits and singularities are accounted for using the different cases in the kinematic solution; and a decision method is implemented to determine how to position the end-effector when the goal is outside the feasible workspace.