A Modern Perspective from “Dual Citizenship” in Academia and Industry

This talk was given at the GRASP 40 year celebration

Transcript

1. A Modern Perspective from “Dual Citizenship” in
   Academia and Industry
   Avik De
   Cofounder & CTO, Ghost Robotics (Philadelphia)
   Postdoc (Harvard SEAS); Ph.D. (UPenn 2017)
   

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2. Fielded legged robotics: status update
   Vision-60 (35kg, 12dof)
   Research Scientific Commercial
   Jerboa (3kg, 4dof)
   Minitaur (6kg, 8dof direct drive)
   

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3. Perspectives on (legged) robot control
   [Raibert (1986)]
   Simple controllers →
   Complex systems/tasks?
   Generalizable solutions
   • Across tasks
   • Across platforms
   [Ting et. al. Neuron (2015)]
   In Biology In Robotics
   [Seyfarth (2015) [De (2017)]
   [Schaal (2006)]
   [Posa et al (2014)]
   [Boston Dynamics (2019)]
   

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4. Thesis: Modularity in Robot Control (Reduction + Composition)
   Classical (analytical) view
   Templates are themselves compositions
   [Full and Koditschek (1999)] “Templates and anchors…”
   

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5. Applications
   [Shamsah, De, Kod (IROS 2018)]
   [De, Kod in IJRR (2018)]
   Minitaur bounding, trotting, pacing, pronking Jerboa tailed hopping
   [De, Kod (ICRA 2014)]
   

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6. Ghost Robotics technical direction: modularity through hierarchy
   ?
   Abstraction benefits
   • Reduced
   (re)development
   • Computational
   simplification
   • Model-robustness
   Spirit 40
   

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7. Consequence on development: GR Vision 60 design history
   2018 2019
   v1.0 v2.0
   v3.0
   Q1 Q1
   v3.5
   Q2 Q2
   Q3 Q3
   Q4 Q4
   

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8. Reduction (anchoring) exposes templates: reactive quadrupedal walking
   Event-driven coupled
   swing leg oscillators
   Trot walk
   Crawl walk
   

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9. Dimension reduction and “reflexes” for perturbation rejection
   

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10. Details of these reflexes make a huge difference in practice: outdoors
    “Details”
    • Slope estimation
    • Slip detection and
    handling
    • Stubbing detection
    and handling
    • Early/late contact
    handling
    • “Re-swing” reflexes
    • …
    

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11. Details of these reflexes make a huge difference in practice: indoors
    

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12. Can go further: templates are inevitable
    • Subject to anchoring posture control,
    • With sufficient actuated DOFs,
    • (degrades gracefully with fewer)
    • Reduced dynamics at least contain IP.
    [De, Topping, Kod (in prep)]
    Back from commercial to research!
    

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13. Emphasize scientific fundamentals: push on efficiency
    * Estimated from public specs
    ** MIT cheetah is larger, “actuators only”
    mechanical (not total) COT, carrying a small battery
    [Seok et. al. (2015)]
    Robot Cost of Transport
    Vision 60 v3.5 0.80
    Vision 60 v4.0 0.54
    Boston Dynamics Spot 0.91*
    MIT Cheetah 0.46**
    Type Power (W)
    Motors Mechanical 210
    Low level electronics Electrical 20
    Blind locomotion Algorithmic <1
    Gait planner Algorithmic <5
    Autonomy Algorithmic 15
    GR Vision 60 v3.5 power budget
    

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14. Perspectives from mixing research with commercial viability
    Why do we need Universities?
    • Training
    • “Five-year problems”
    • Intellectual boldness
    Why do we need companies?
    • Motivation
    • Platforms
    • $$$
    • “Details” reveal research problems
    [De (2017)]
    BD Spot GR Vision ANYmal
    [Boston Dynamics (2019)]
    

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15. Impact on the individual
    What does an (academic/researcher/engineer)
    of the future look like?
    • Beneficial to draw on both
    • Unclear
    • Incentive structures around IP
    • Trade secrets vs. publishing
    • Entities like GRASP can help by defining next-generation norms!
    Academia Company
    Individual
    

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