Computational design of skinned Quad-Robots

Feng, Xudong; Liu, Jiafeng; Wang, Huamin; Yang, Yin; Bao, Hujun; Bickel, Bernd; Xu, Weiwei

Computational design of skinned Quad-Robots

Feng X, Liu J, Wang H, Yang Y, Bao H, Bickel B, Xu W. 2021. Computational design of skinned Quad-Robots. IEEE Transactions on Visualization and Computer Graphics. 27(6), 2881–2895.

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2021_TVCG_Feng.pdf 6.18 MB [Published Version]

DOI

10.1109/TVCG.2019.2957218

Journal Article | Published | English

Scopus indexed

Author

Feng, Xudong; Liu, Jiafeng; Wang, Huamin; Yang, Yin; Bao, Hujun; Bickel, Bernd^ISTA ; Xu, Weiwei

Department

Bickel Group

Grant

MATERIALIZABLE: Intelligent fabrication-oriented Computational Design and Modeling

Abstract

We present a computational design system that assists users to model, optimize, and fabricate quad-robots with soft skins. Our system addresses the challenging task of predicting their physical behavior by fully integrating the multibody dynamics of the mechanical skeleton and the elastic behavior of the soft skin. The developed motion control strategy uses an alternating optimization scheme to avoid expensive full space time-optimization, interleaving space-time optimization for the skeleton, and frame-by-frame optimization for the full dynamics. The output are motor torques to drive the robot to achieve a user prescribed motion trajectory. We also provide a collection of convenient engineering tools and empirical manufacturing guidance to support the fabrication of the designed quad-robot. We validate the feasibility of designs generated with our system through physics simulations and with a physically-fabricated prototype.

Publishing Year

2021

Date Published

2021-06-01

Journal Title

IEEE Transactions on Visualization and Computer Graphics

Publisher

IEEE

Acknowledgement

The authors would like to thank anonymous reviewers for their constructive comments. Weiwei Xu is partially supported by Zhejiang Lab. Yin Yang is partially spported by NSF under Grant Nos. CHS 1845024 and 1717972. Weiwei Xu and Hujun Bao are supported by Fundamental Research Funds for the Central Universities. This project has received funding from the European Research Council (ERC) under the European Unions Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme (Grant agreement No 715767).

Volume

Issue

Article Number

2881-2895

ISSN

19410506

eISSN

10772626

IST-REx-ID

9408

Cite this

Feng X, Liu J, Wang H, et al. Computational design of skinned Quad-Robots. IEEE Transactions on Visualization and Computer Graphics. 2021;27(6). doi:10.1109/TVCG.2019.2957218

Feng, X., Liu, J., Wang, H., Yang, Y., Bao, H., Bickel, B., & Xu, W. (2021). Computational design of skinned Quad-Robots. IEEE Transactions on Visualization and Computer Graphics. IEEE. https://doi.org/10.1109/TVCG.2019.2957218

Feng, Xudong, Jiafeng Liu, Huamin Wang, Yin Yang, Hujun Bao, Bernd Bickel, and Weiwei Xu. “Computational Design of Skinned Quad-Robots.” IEEE Transactions on Visualization and Computer Graphics. IEEE, 2021. https://doi.org/10.1109/TVCG.2019.2957218.

X. Feng et al., “Computational design of skinned Quad-Robots,” IEEE Transactions on Visualization and Computer Graphics, vol. 27, no. 6. IEEE, 2021.

Feng X, Liu J, Wang H, Yang Y, Bao H, Bickel B, Xu W. 2021. Computational design of skinned Quad-Robots. IEEE Transactions on Visualization and Computer Graphics. 27(6), 2881–2895.

Feng, Xudong, et al. “Computational Design of Skinned Quad-Robots.” IEEE Transactions on Visualization and Computer Graphics, vol. 27, no. 6, 2881–2895, IEEE, 2021, doi:10.1109/TVCG.2019.2957218.

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