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Emergency first responders are the great heroes of our day, having to routinely risk their lives for the safety of others. Developing robotic technologies to aid in such emergencies could greatly reduce the risk these individuals must take, even going so far as to eliminate the need to risk one life for another. In this role, humanoid robots are a strong candidate, being able to take advantage of both the human engineered environment in which it will likely operate, but also make use of human engineered tools and equipment as it deals with a disaster relief effort. The work presented here aims to lessen the hurdles that stand in the way through the research and development of new humanoid robot technologies. To be successful in the role of an emergency first responder requires a fantastic array of skills. One of the most fundamental is the ability to just get to the scene. Unfortunately, it is at this level that humanoid robots currently struggle. This research focuses on the complementary development of physical hardware, digital controllers, and trajectory planning necessary to achieve the research goals of improving the locomotion capabilities of a humanoid robot. To improve the physical performance capabilities of the robot, this research will first focus on the interaction between the hip and knee actuators. It is shown that much like the human body, a biped greatly benefits from the use of biarticular actuation. Improvements in efficiency as much as 30% are possible by simply interconnecting the hip roll and knee pitch joints. Balancing and walking controllers are designed to take advantage of the new hardware capabilities and expand the terrain capabilities of bipedal walking robots to uneven and non-stationary ground. A hybrid position/force control based balancing controller stabilizes the robot's COM regardless of the terrain underfoot. In particular two feedback mechanisms are shown to greatly improve the stability of bipedal systems in response to unmodelled dynamics. The hybrid position/force approach is shown through experiments to greatly extend humanoid capabilities to many types of terrain. With robust balancing ensured, walking trajectories are defined using an improved linear inverted pendulum model that incorporates the swing leg dynamics. The proposed method is shown to significantly reduce the control authority (by 50%) required for satisfactory trajectory following. Three parameters are identified which provide for quick manual or numerical solutions to be found to the trajectory problem. The walking and balance controller were operated on four different terrains successfully, strewn plywood, gravel, and high pile synthetic grass. Furthermore, SAFFiR is believed to be the first bipedal robot to ever walk on sand. The hardware enabled force control architecture was very effective at modulating ground reaction torques no matter the ground conditions. This in combination with highly accurate state estimation provided a very stable balance controller on top of which successful walking was demonstrated. / Ph. D.

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<p>U tezi je prikazan novi metod za sintezu i realizaciju dvonožnog<br />veštačkog hoda koji se zasniva na upotrebi jednostavnih pokreta čijim<br />je kombinovanjem moguće realizovati kompleksne pokrete kao što je<br />hod, a čiji se parametri mogu menjati tokom kretanja. Time je omogućeno<br />da se na osnovu informacija o nameravanom kretanju i stanja okoline<br />izvrši sinteza kretanja izborom i kombinacijom jednostavnih<br />bazičnih pokreta koje se nazivaju primitivi. Takođe je omogućeno da se,<br />tokom izvršavanja hoda bez njegovog prekida, menjaju parametri<br />kretanja kao što su brzina hoda, dužina koraka, pravac kretanja i<br />visina podizanja noge tokom prenosne faze. Potvrda je data kroz<br />eksperimentalne rezultate koji su sprovedeni simulacijom na<br />dinamičkom modelu humanoidnog robota.</p> / <p>This dissertation presents new method for the synthesis and realization of<br />biped artificial walk based on the use of simple movements that can be<br />combined in order to achieve complex movements such as walk, whereas it<br />is possible to change the motion parameters at any time. It means that,<br />based on the information about intended movement and current state of the<br />environment, it is possible to synthesize motion by selecting and tying simple<br />movements, i.e. motion primitives. It also enables the robot to change<br />walking parameters online such as walking speed, direction of walk, foot<br />length during swing phase and step length. Proof of this method is given by<br />experimental results obtained during the simulation on a dynamic model of<br />humanoid robot.</p>

Thesis name: The evaluating of the change of walking quality in dancers in comparison with the normal population Thesis goal: This thesis deals with effect of long-term ballet dance on kinematic parameters of gait. The theoretical part includes basic characteristics of gait cycle and kinesiological and biomechanical findings of ballet movement and its compensatory mechanisms in musculoskeletal system. There is analyzed angular parameters of gait cycle in ballet dancers in performance of walking in the experimental part. The results will show if the many-years intensive training of dance affects the alignment of particular joints of the body during human walk. Method: Kinematic analysis by Qualisys system allowing automatic processing of record obtained with infrared cameras. Qualisys uses its own high-frequency cameras for precise movement tracking of the measured object using active or passive markers. Gathered data from device were processed and statictically evaluated with Microsoft Office Excel. Keywords: gait, bipedal locomotion, dance, gait analysis, gait of dancers, ballet, kinematics analysis

Title: Phylogenetical consequenses of human locomotion realizated during the schoulder girdle Objectives: Description of phylogenetic context of human locomotion realized through the shoulder girdle Methods: Study and analysis of the available literature Analytic-synthetic comparison of the current knowledge of evolution Study of available sources of phylogeny of locomotion in terrestrial vertebrates Results: It was found similarity in the basic control of human bipedal locomotion to control of quadrupedal locomotion of other animals and similarity in the specific form of human locomotion to locomotion of non-human primates Keywords: Bipedal locomotion, quadrupedal locomotion, control of locomotion, interlimb coordination

Un des plus grands défis dans la commande des robots est de combler l'écart entre la capacité de mouvement de l'humain et des robots humanoïdes. La difficulté réside dans la complexité des systèmes dynamiques représentant les robots humanoïdes: la non linéarité, le sous-actionnement, le comportement non-lisse en raison de collisions et de frottement, le nombre élevé de degrés de liberté. De plus, les robots humanoïdes sont censés opérer dans des environnements non-déterministes, qui exigent une commande temps réel avancée.L'approche qui prévaut actuellement pour faire face à ces difficultés est d'imposer diverses restrictions sur les mouvements et d'employer des modèles approximatifs des robots. Dans cette thèse, nous suivons la même ligne de recherche et proposons une nouvelle approche pour la conception de contrôleurs corps entier qui préservent l'équilibre. L'idée principale est de tirer parti des avantages des modèles approximatifs et de corps entier en les mélangeant dans un seul problème de contrôle prédictif avec des objectifs strictement hiérarchisés.La préservation de l'équilibre est l'une des principales préoccupations dans la commande des robots humanoïdes. Des recherches antérieures ont déjà établi que l'anticipation des mouvements est essentiel à cet effet. Nous préconisons que l'anticipation est utile dans ce sens comme un moyen de maintenir la capturabilité du mouvement, i.e., la capacité de s'arrêter. Nous soulignons que capturabilité des mouvements prévus peut être imposée avec des contraintes appropriées. Dans la pratique, il est fréquent d'anticiper les mouvements du robot à l'aide de modèles approximatifs afin de réduire l'effort de calcul, par conséquent, un contrôleur séparé de mouvement du corps entier est nécessaire pour le suivi. Au lieu de cela, nous proposons d'introduire l'anticipation avec un modèle approximatif directement dans le contrôleur corps entier. En conséquence, les mouvements du corps entier générés respectent les contraintes de capturabilité et les mouvements anticipes du modèle approximatif prennent en compte les contraintes et les tâches désirées pour le corps entier. Nous posons nos contrôleurs du mouvement du corps entier comme des problèmes d'optimisation avec des objectifs strictement hiérarchisés. Bien que cet ordre de priorité soit commun dans la littérature, nous croyons qu'il est souvent mal exploité.Par conséquent, nous proposons plusieurs exemples de contrôleurs, où la hiérarchisation est utile et nécessaire pour atteindre les comportements souhaités. Nous évaluons nos contrôleurs dans deux scénarios simulés, où la tâche du corps entier du robot influence la marche et le robot exploite éventuellement un contact avec la main pour maintenir son équilibre en étant debout. / One of the greatest challenges in robot control is closing the gap between themotion capabilities of humans and humanoid robots. The difficulty lies in thecomplexity of the dynamical systems representing the said robots: theirnonlinearity, underactuation, discrete behavior due to collisions and friction,high number of degrees of freedom. Moreover, humanoid robots are supposed tooperate in non-deterministic environments, which require advanced real timecontrol. The currently prevailing approach to coping with these difficulties isto impose various limitations on the motions and employ approximate models ofthe robots. In this thesis, we follow the same line of research and propose anew approach to the design of balance preserving whole body motion controllers.The key idea is to leverage the advantages of whole body and approximate modelsby mixing them within a single predictive control problem with strictlyprioritized objectives.Balance preservation is one of the primary concerns in the control of humanoidrobots. Previous research has already established that anticipation of motionsis crucial for this purpose. We advocate that anticipation is helpful in thissense as a way to maintain capturability of the motion, i.e., the ability tostop. We stress that capturability of anticipated motions can be enforced withappropriate constraints. In practice, it is common to anticipate motions usingapproximate models in order to reduce computational effort, hence, a separatewhole body motion controller is needed for tracking. Instead, we propose tointroduce anticipation with an approximate model into the whole body motioncontroller. As a result, the generated whole body motions respect thecapturability constraints and the anticipated motions of an approximate modeltake into account whole body constraints and tasks. We pose our whole bodymotion controllers as optimization problems with strictly prioritizedobjectives. Though such prioritization is common in the literature, we believethat it is often not properly exploited. We, therefore, propose severalexamples of controllers, where prioritization is useful and necessary toachieve desired behaviors. We evaluate our controllers in two simulatedscenarios, where a whole body task influences walking motions of the robot andthe robot optionally exploits a hand contact to maintain balance whilestanding.

Orientador: Carlos Alberto dos Reis Filho / Dissertação (mestrado) - Universidade Estadual de Campinas, Faculdade de Engenharia Eletrica e de Computação / Made available in DSpace on 2018-08-10T09:10:45Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 Nadalin_EvertonZaccaria_M.pdf: 2191420 bytes, checksum: 38decb6d182261bd5e5fc2df03ad1b9a (MD5) Previous issue date: 2007 / Resumo: Este trabalho está relacionado com o problema da pesagem de um bovino criado em campo aberto, não confinado, destinado ao corte. O conhecimento da evolução contínua do peso do animal é de grande importância neste ramo de negócios e uma solução tecnicamente satisfatória, de custo aceitável e de tecnologia proprietária, certamente representa uma significativa contribuição ao Brasil. Uma solução idealizada, que é a meta maior do projeto em que este trabalho se enquadra, prevê o uso de um dispositivo instalado nas patas do animal, contendo um sensor de pressão ou de impacto e uma unidade eletrônica local que condiciona, digitaliza e armazena os sinais do sensor. Além disto, a unidade eletrônica transmite estes dados através de uma rede de comunicação de dados sem fio e de baixo consumo de energia para centrais de coleta e processamento estrategicamente situadas na área em que o gado se desenvolve. Tal sistema viabiliza, deste modo, acumular no tempo as informações de cada pisada de cada animal. O sinal produzido por um sensor em conseqüência do impacto de cada pisada é influenciado por diversos parâmetros, dentre os quais o peso do animal. Sendo assim, é impossível estabelecer uma relação direta e exclusiva entre o sinal do sensor e o peso. Entretanto, os valores acumulados destes sinais descrevem uma função de múltiplas variáveis que pode ser tratada juntamente com algumas informações complementares sobre o ambiente, buscando-se o isolamento da variável peso. Para isto, uma abordagem adequada prevê o desenvolvimento ou adoção de um modelo do mecanismo de movimentação do animal e o tratamento numérico dos dados acumulados aplicando filtragens e buscas de correlações. Trata-se, portanto, de uma solução de natureza multidisciplinar, que exige uma aliança de conhecimentos complementares para a sua realização. Coube ao presente trabalho, desenvolvido no âmbito da engenharia eletrônica, a implementação de uma etapa preliminar e necessária que consiste de um sistema de caracterização de pisadas constituído de um conjunto de sensores piezoelétricos, uma interface que permite a transferência dos dados destes sensores a um computador e um ambiente de software através do qual foram testados algoritmos para a verificação de correlação entre os sinais associados às pisadas e o peso do agente. São frutos deste trabalho um sistema de coleta automática dos sinais de pisadas, que permitiu a captura de sinais com sensores instalados tanto numa plataforma fixa como num sapato tênis, e um estudo comparativo dos resultados obtidos de tratamentos numéricos distintos aplicados aos dados experimentais / Abstract: This work deals with the problem of weighting non-confined cattle raised in open field for meat production. The knowledge of the continuous weight change of the animal is of great importance in this business field. Therefore, a technically satisfactory solution, with acceptable price and customized technology, certainly represents a significant contribution to Brazil. The idealized solution, which is the major goal to be pursued by the project in which this work takes part, considers the use of a device placed into the animal¿s hooves. It would contain a pressure or impact sensor and a local electronic unit, which conditions, digitizes and stores the signals received from the sensor. The electronic unit also transmits this data through a low-energy wireless communication network to reception and processing stations placed strategically around the area where the cattle raises. Such a system enables accumulating data about the steps of each animal throughout time. Several parameters, including the animal¿s weight, influence the signal produced by a sensor as a consequence to the impact of a step. Therefore, it is impossible to establish a direct and exclusive relation between the signal given by the sensor and the weight. Nevertheless, the accumulated data of these signals describe a multiple variable function that can be treated together with some complementary information about the environment, seeking the isolation of the weight variable. An adequate approach predicts the development or use of a model of the animal¿s locomotion mechanism and the numeric treatment of the accumulated data by applying filtering and seeking correlations. The multidisciplinary nature of this solution demands an alliance of complementary knowledge for its accomplishment. This work, developed in the scope of electrical engineering, implemented a necessary and preliminary stage that consists of: a step characterization system, made of a set of piezoelectric sensors, an interface that allows transferring data from the sensors to a computer and a software environment, in which algorithms were tested to verify the correlation between the signals associated to the steps and the agent¿s weight. The main result of this work are a system that performs automatic collecting of steps, which allowed the capture of the signals with sensors installed both on a fixed platform and inside tennis shoes, and the comparative study of the results of different numerical treatments applied to the experimental data / Mestrado / Eletrônica, Microeletrônica e Optoeletrônica / Mestre em Engenharia Elétrica

3 Abstract: Title: Nordic walking - muscle response at movement apparatus in pelves area. Purposes: The aim of the thesis is to compare muscle timing in pelves area using EMG during free bipedal walk and during the walk with special sticks. Methods: Surface electromyography combinated with kinematografy analysis used synchronized video recording. Results: It Managed to prove different muscle timing at Nordic walking and at free walk. It was proved lower activity of stabilization muscles at walk with sticks. Key words: Nordic walking, surface electromyography, stabilization muscles, kinematics analysis, bipedal locomotion

Title: Nordic walking - muscle response at movement apparatus in pelvis area. Purposes: The aim of the thesis is to compare muscle timing in pelvis area using EMG during free bipedal walk and during the walk with special sticks. Methods: Surface electromyography combinated with kinematografy analysis used synchronized video recording. Results: It Managed to prove different muscle timing at nordic walking and at free walk. It was proved lower activity of stabilization muscles at walk with sticks. Key words: Nordic walking, surface electromyography, stabilization muscles, kinematics analysis, bipedal locomotion