WALK-MAN · Whole-body Adaptive Locomotion and Manipulation

Despite the remarkable developments in robotics, and the many years and the millions Euros spent, robotics could not yet demonstrate readiness to help in recent catastrophic situations. This project aims to develop a humanoid that will be able to operate in de-structured spaces, demonstrating apt and strong manipulation, robust locomotion, and physical sturdiness. We aim to advance the locomotion capabilities to permit humanoids to walk and balance against disturbances by exploiting their whole body motion and the workspace constraints. We target to advance the manipulation skills of humanoids by looking on new hand that combine robustness and adaptability allowing less delicate use of the hands for manipulation as well for locomotion/balancing assistance. We rely on four powerful enabling ideas: 1) an integrated approach to whole-body locomotion and manipulation (loco-manipulation), where all body parts contribute to produce and balance motion, as well as to produce the large manipulation forces needed in a disaster environment; 2) loco-manipulation affordances mediating perception, cognition and action; 3) soft robotic actuators technologies, to afford adaptability and robustness, and 4) ) efficient any-time planning algorithms exploiting a robust and consistent control hierarchy based on the theory of motion description languages and symbolic control. We will define stringent and plausible validation scenarios, including but not limited to those of the DARPA robotic challenge. The Consortium will generate a European entry to the DARPA Robotic Challenge to participate in the final trials in December 2014, to which we have been officially invited. However, our work will not be targeted to a system adjusted to the requirements of this or any specific challenge. In the second part of the project civil defense corps will define specifications for real-world use. Our true goal is when the need will unfortunately arise again, robotics will be there to help.