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I’VE FALLEN AND I CAN’T GET UP


ROBOT ON THE GO Te robot used in the team’s research is made of a shoebox-sized blue base, two white, tapered arms on each side, and a red, jointed appendage that carries a coun- terweight. (All the parts were 3D-printed on the team’s own printer.) It can sense its own orientation and send a signal back to the researcher asking permission to self- right. However, this robot is just a research platform, said Geoff Slipher, chief of the Autonomous Systems Division. He noted that research is still in the early stages, and emphasized that the test robot’s capabili- ties aren’t what the team envisions for final systems. “It’s not intended to be anything that the Army would ever intend to field. … It allows us to ask and answer research questions. So, our product is not a robotic


system; our product is knowledge about how to make robotic systems perform better,” Slipher said.


In a demonstration, Jim Dotterweich, a research scientist working with Kessens, placed the research robot on a wooden ramp on the floor in the center of a room- sized square, steel frame. Te frame, or rigging, held motion-capture cameras that in an actual experiment would record the robot’s movements. The robot’s Lego- like exterior allows researchers to attach reflective globes—motion-capture mark- ers—of varying sizes in hundreds of configurations. Te camera system locates the markers in the near-infrared spectrum to find joints and record dynamics of the robot, Dotterweich explained.


ARL’s Autonomous Systems Division’s advanced mobility and manipulation team wants to understand how robots can right themselves so that the future Soldier has semi- or fully autonomous robots on the battlefield.


Dotterweich conducted the demonstration hunching over a computer on a fold-out table to send the self-right command to the robot. Slowly, the robot pushed itself halfway upright using its arms. And then, in one quick movement, it twisted and jumped to a fully upright position, drawing a gentle cheer from the other researchers.


FOILED AGAIN


Scientific research is fraught with peril, even when working with software and robots. Researchers like Jim Dotterweich never know when the test subjects will act out or scoot too close to falling off the ramp. However, once properly in position, the test robot is able to perform self-righting maneuvers quite well.


For their research, Kessens and his team generated a series of maps for differ- ent ground angles—different degrees of inclination, like a steep slope—using their software. Tey start the robot in varying configurations, such as lying upside down or on its side, before running a path-plan- ning algorithm to move the robot through the map, Kessens said. “We generated experimental data and matched it to the model data and showed that, yeah, our maps are doing a pretty good job of saying what states the robot could actually be in,” he said. Te team also conducted several experiments wherein the robot would be given a random starting configuration before righting itself.


Te self-righting software can be adapted to most rigid-body robots. Anything that has arms, legs, wings or flippers—in


52 Army AL&T Magazine Spring 2019


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