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Traction Monitoring for Collision Detection with Legged Robots

Michael J. Quinlan, Craig L. Murch, Richard H. Middleton, and Stephan K. Chalup

School of Electrical Engineering & Computer Science, The University of Newcastle, Callaghan 2308, Australia
mquinlan@eecs.newcastle.edu.au
cmurch@eecs.newcastle.edu.au
rick@eecs.newcastle.edu.au
chalup@eecs.newcastle.edu.au
http://robots.newcastle.edu.au

Abstract. With the introduction of commercially available programm- able legged robots, a generic software method for detection of abnormalities in the robots’ locomotion is required. Our approach is to gain satisfactory results using a bare minimum amount of hardware feedback; In most cases we are able to detect faults using only the joint angle sensors. Methods for recognising several types of collision as well as a loss of traction are examined. We are particularly interested in applying such techniques to Sony AIBO robots in the RoboCup legged league environment. This investigation provided us with a technique that enabled us to detect collisions with reliable accuracy using limited training time.

LNAI 3020, p. 374 ff.

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