Assumptions: This series of adventures is predicated on concurrently taking the ECE4560 course, so that the material being explored maps to lecture and reading material. The optimal control part will diverge from the lecture material, however the underlying optimization is quite aligned with the segment on polynomial representation of curves/trajectories. To complete the adventures, you will naturally need access to the robots themselves as well as some familiarity with object oriented programming in Matlab (e.g., class implementations in Matlab will be coded as part of getting the manipulator to work). Otherwise, it has minimal requirements relative to the other lab options.

Philosophy: This thread is relatively new, having been introduced as part of a special topics course two years ago, and as a custom track last year. It matches the material well in terms of forward kinematics and alternative $SE(2)$ representations. There may be a small segment that utilizes the manipulator Jacobian. You will have to code up your own class for controlling the robot.

Companion Code: The SE2 class code will be needed. A biped class will be needed (either the stub will be provided or it will be done from scratch).

Module 0: Getting Started

1. Modeling and Servomotor Interface.

Module Set 1: Quasi-Static Bipedal Locomotion

1. Foot-based frame of reference + Trajectory plotting.
2. Center of Mass.
3. Leg: Resolved rate.
4. Leg: Optimal Control.
5. Single leg quasi-static gait, CoM over 2D support polygon.
6. Implement and verify single leg gait.
7. Extend gait to two legs: 3 gait phases (left, double, right).
8. Implement and demo full gait (attached to boom).

Module Set 2: Beyond Quasi-Static Bipedal Locomotion.

1. TBD

Projects – Main