First Italian Workshop on Quadruped Robots

Abstract - In this talk I will present an overview of 16 years of research and development of quadruped robots and their locomotion control at IIT's Dynamic Legged Systems lab. After a quick chronological overview of the various quadruped robot versions developed in the lab, I will focus on the most recent 140kg hydraulic HyQReal robot, followed by the presentation of three ongoing/recent projects in the fields of agriculture, disaster response and space. The VINUM project focuses on the automation of winter pruning in vineyards with quadruped robots. The INAIL-RT2 project is about a teleoperated legged manipulation platform for disaster response. Last, my talk will take you into the field of space exploration. I will present the results of our ESA-funded project ANT about legged rovers for hard-to-access areas like craters on Moon and Mars.

Abstract - Global warming and pollution are threatening the survival of one million over the eight million species on the planet. The European answer to these threats is contained in the European Green Deal that recognizes the paramount importance of environmental monitoring, which today is entirely executed by human operator. Natural Intelligence is the first research project in which quadruped robots have been used to perform environmental monitoring missions in Dunes, Grasslands, Screes, and Forests. This research line has not only demonstrated that quadruped may navigate natural environments but highlighted the potential benefit of multi-modal robots provided with legs and wheels, trucks, omniwheels, and manipulators.

Abstract - Legged robots are mainly designed to traverse unstructured environments where wheeled robots have limited mobility. Their applications range from nuclear decommissioning to mining, search and rescue, inspection, and surveillance. There are specific situations where obstacles are much higher than the size of the robot leg. These obstacles cannot be crossed with usual state-of-the-art gaits (e.g. trot/walk) and require performing very dynamic motions (i.e. a jump). Aerial motions involve different phases (i.e. thrusting, ballistic, landing). In this talk, I will present two planning strategies for jumping and landing. The first employs Reinforcement Learning (RL) to generate optimal jumping onmi-directional motions where the learning process is guided by injecting physical knowledge. This expedient resulted in a drastic reduction of the learning time with respect to standard end-to-end approaches. The second strategy, regarding landing, is a model-based reactive planner that continuously recomputes the foothold locations in order to make the robot come to a stop without re-bouncing.

Abstract - This talk will explore the possible exploitation of quadruped robots in agriculture applications. How to face the stability problem on harsh terrain, cutting the grapevines, and drilling silage walls will be presented. Finally, some mechatronic development carried out at PRISMA Lab for constructing a small-legged robot will be presented.

Abstract - In recent years, the possibility of using quadruped robots as support for search and rescue operations in emergency situations has emerged as a concrete possibility. This requires close collaboration with operators in order to gather their needs and their vision of how robots can assist them. The talk will narrate our experience in the development of autonomous quadruped robots, acquiring valuable information from ANPAS and Civil Protection volunteers, as well as some possible research paths to address the challenges posed by their requirements.

Abstract - Neural architectures are recognised as powerful tools capable of efficiently face with a large plethora of problems, ranging from the approximation of complex nonlinear dynamics using a data-driven strategy, to the reproduction of phase-locked periodic dynamics representing gaits in legged robots. This latter approach has been followed since the late 1990s to implement locomotion models in legged prototypes, mainly hexapods. Recently, research in our group has moved on to quadrupedal locomotion due to the challenging aspects related to dynamic balance. In this perspective, recent and current research has focused on exploiting the capabilities of neural controllers in achieving and maintaining balance in quadrupedal robots, particularly when subjected to load disturbances or when standing on two legs.