Linear model predictive control of the locomotion of Pepper, a humanoid robot with omnidirectional wheels

Jory Lafaye (1) , David Gouaillier (1) , Pierre-Brice Wieber (2)

1 Aldebaran Robotics [Paris]
2 BIPOP - Modelling, Simulation, Control and Optimization of Non-Smooth Dynamical Systems

The goal of this paper is to present a new real-time controller based on linear model predictive control for an omnidirectionnal wheeled humanoid robot. It is able to control both the mobile base of the robot and its body, while taking into account dynamical constraints. It makes it possible to have high velocity and acceleration motions by predicting the dynamic behavior of the robot in the future. Experimental results are proposed on the robot Pepper made by Aldebaran Robotics, showing good performance in terms of robustness and tracking control, efficiently managing kinematic and dynamical constraints.

Keywords: Humanoid Robotics; Mobile Robotics; Omni- directional Wheeled Robot; Linear Model Predictive Control; Balance Control; Quadratic Programming; Aldebaran Robotics Pepper Robot

Domains: Automatic

Jory Lafaye, David Gouaillier, Pierre-Brice Wieber. Linear model predictive control of the locomotion of Pepper, a humanoid robot with omnidirectional wheels. IEEE-RAS International Conference on Humanoid Robots (Humanoids), Nov 2014, Madrid, Spain. pp.336-341, ⟨10.1109/HUMANOIDS.2014.7041381⟩. ⟨hal-02487653⟩