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CCI, AAI, and MHI Joint Seminar Series - Baxi Chong (Georgia Tech): Gait coding scheme for multi-legged robots

Speaker: Baxi Chong, Georgia Tech

Talk Title: Gait coding scheme for multi-legged robots

Abstract: While the transport of matter by wheeled vehicles or legged robots can be guaranteed in engineered landscapes like roads or rails, locomotion prediction in complex environments like collapsed buildings or crop fields remains challenging. Inspired by principles of information transmission which allow signals to be reliably transmitted over noisy channels, we develop a “matter transport" framework demonstrating that non-inertial locomotion can be provably generated over “noisy" rugose landscapes (heterogeneities on the scale of locomotor dimensions). Experiments confirm that sufficient spatial redundancy in the form of seriallyconnected legged robots leads to reliable transport on such terrain without requiring sensing and control.  
 
Despite robustness, locomotors with excessively redundant legs are often practically unfavored because of limited efficiency and applicability. Analogous to signal transmission, we further improve locomotion efficiency by properly coordinating (coding) the redundant legs. The challenges of such coding partially lie on the high dimensionality associated with the additional legs and the emergent importance of inter-leg centralized coordination. Specifically, we need a top-down approach to analyze the central coordination among the additional legs, and further design how it should adapt to different environments. We use geometric mechanics, a mathematical framework for studying locomotion in various systems, for motion planning in multi-legged robots operating in complex environments. As a result, open-loop operation on multi-legged robots achieves remarkable performance on terrains with different types and levels of complexity. Additionally, analogies from communication theory coupled to advances in coding for error detection/correction further improve the locomotion efficiency and robustness via centralized adaptation (using simple contact sensors to estimate environmental uncertainty). This research contributes to the field of legged robot locomotion, providing new possibilities for designing effective and adaptable robots for challenging environments.  
 
This lecture satisfies requirements for CSCI 591: Research Colloquium  
 
Zoom Link: https://usc.zoom.us/j/98624281836?pwd=ajJSWGRvbkRpUVgvRC9nOXd5K29TZz09  
 
Meeting ID: 986 2428 1836 Passcode: CPS24

Biography: Dr. Baxi Chong is a postdoctoral fellow at the CRAB (Complex Rheology And Biomechanics) Lab in the School of Physics at Georgia Tech. His research focuses on locomotion, aiming to diversify robot morphology with reference to evolutionary biology. Dr. Chong has contributed to high-impact journals and conferences such as Science, PNAS, IJRR, and RSS. Additionally, he actively serves as a reviewer for robotics conferences and journals, including ICRA, IROS, IJRR, and TRO. Dr. Chong obtained his Ph.D. from Georgia Tech and his Bachelor of Engineering from the University of Hong Kong.

Host: Pierluigi Nuzzo and Feifei Qian

More Info: https://usc.zoom.us/j/98624281836?pwd=ajJSWGRvbkRpUVgvRC9nOXd5K29TZz09

Location: Hughes Aircraft Electrical Engineering Center (EEB) - 248

Audiences: Everyone Is Invited

Contact: CS Events

Event Link: https://usc.zoom.us/j/98624281836?pwd=ajJSWGRvbkRpUVgvRC9nOXd5K29TZz09