CONTACT SENSING APPROACH IN HUMANOID ROBOT NAVIGATION

This paper presents the development of a basic contact interaction-based navigation system for biped humanoid robot. We utilized a 21-dof humanoid robot Bonten-Maru II in our study and experiments. The robot arms are equipped with force sensors to detect physical contact with objects. We proposed a motion algorithm consists of searching, self-localization, correction of locomotion direction, obstacle avoidance, and object manipulation tasks. We applied contact interaction method, whereby humanoid robot grasp on object surface to define self-localization, and then autonomously correcting locomotion direction and avoiding obstacles. For object manipulation, newly developed optical three-axis tactile sensor is mounted on a robotic finger for evaluation purpose. Experiments with Bonten-Maru II to perform self-localization and obstacle avoidance tasks, and the robotic finger mounted with tactile sensor system to perform object manipulation are conducted. The experimental results reveal good robot performance when recognizing object and avoiding collisions in navigation tasks, and good performance to realize and manipulate objects in object manipulation tasks.