Capuchin: A Free-Climbing Robot

This paper describes an integrated quasi-autonomous four-limbed robot, named Capuchin, which is equipped with appropriate sensing, planning and control capabilities to “free-climb” vertical terrain. Unlike aid climbing that takes advantage of special tools and/or engineered terrain features, free cl...

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Main Authors: Ruixiang Zhang, Jean-Claude Latombe
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: SAGE Publishing 2013-04-01
Series:International Journal of Advanced Robotic Systems
Online Access:https://doi.org/10.5772/56469
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author Ruixiang Zhang
Jean-Claude Latombe
author_facet Ruixiang Zhang
Jean-Claude Latombe
author_sort Ruixiang Zhang
collection DOAJ
description This paper describes an integrated quasi-autonomous four-limbed robot, named Capuchin, which is equipped with appropriate sensing, planning and control capabilities to “free-climb” vertical terrain. Unlike aid climbing that takes advantage of special tools and/or engineered terrain features, free climbing only relies on friction at the contacts between the climber and the rigid terrain. While moving, Capuchin adjusts its body posture (hence, the position of its centre of mass) and exerts appropriate forces at the contacts in order to remain in equilibrium. Vision is used to achieve precise contacts and force sensing to control contact forces. The robot's planner is based on a pre-existing two-stage “stance-before-motion” approach. Its controller applies a novel “lazy” force control strategy that performs force adjustments only when these are needed. Experiments demonstrate that Capuchin can reliably climb vertical terrain with irregular features.
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spelling doaj.art-abd28a6d944d453aa2761c738be43ad82022-12-22T00:05:15ZengSAGE PublishingInternational Journal of Advanced Robotic Systems1729-88142013-04-011010.5772/5646910.5772_56469Capuchin: A Free-Climbing RobotRuixiang Zhang0Jean-Claude Latombe1 Computer Science Department, Stanford University, Stanford, CA, USA Computer Science Department, Stanford University, Stanford, CA, USAThis paper describes an integrated quasi-autonomous four-limbed robot, named Capuchin, which is equipped with appropriate sensing, planning and control capabilities to “free-climb” vertical terrain. Unlike aid climbing that takes advantage of special tools and/or engineered terrain features, free climbing only relies on friction at the contacts between the climber and the rigid terrain. While moving, Capuchin adjusts its body posture (hence, the position of its centre of mass) and exerts appropriate forces at the contacts in order to remain in equilibrium. Vision is used to achieve precise contacts and force sensing to control contact forces. The robot's planner is based on a pre-existing two-stage “stance-before-motion” approach. Its controller applies a novel “lazy” force control strategy that performs force adjustments only when these are needed. Experiments demonstrate that Capuchin can reliably climb vertical terrain with irregular features.https://doi.org/10.5772/56469
spellingShingle Ruixiang Zhang
Jean-Claude Latombe
Capuchin: A Free-Climbing Robot
International Journal of Advanced Robotic Systems
title Capuchin: A Free-Climbing Robot
title_full Capuchin: A Free-Climbing Robot
title_fullStr Capuchin: A Free-Climbing Robot
title_full_unstemmed Capuchin: A Free-Climbing Robot
title_short Capuchin: A Free-Climbing Robot
title_sort capuchin a free climbing robot
url https://doi.org/10.5772/56469
work_keys_str_mv AT ruixiangzhang capuchinafreeclimbingrobot
AT jeanclaudelatombe capuchinafreeclimbingrobot