List of projects

Project No.1: Developing new abilities for humanoid robots: how to plan and control sit down or stand up movements

Summary: Searching feasible gaits for bipeds and controlling such behaviors for increasing robustness and versatility of walking machines have already become classical problems for robotics locomotion community. The project is focused on developing new functionality of such machines, where instead of repetitive gait patterns the robot is requested to perform other motions such as sit-down or stand-up from a chair. The motivation for new assignment comes from importance of such behaviors for rehabilitation and assistance for handicaps and elderly persons if they will be wearing robotic devices. The study will be primarily focused on extension of available control and robotic oriented math/modeling/computational tools reported in

• O. Harib et al., "Feedback Control of an Exoskeleton for Paraplegics: Toward Robustly Stable, Hands-Free Dynamic Walking," IEEE Control Systems Magazine, 38(6):61-87, 2018.

• Pchelkin S., A. Shiriaev, L. Freidovich, U. Mettin, S. Gusev, Woong Kwon, and L. Paramonov. "A Dynamic Human Motion: Coordination Analysis," Journal of Biological Cybernetics, 109(1): 47-62, 2015.

Project No.2: Developing dynamic and non-prehensile manipulation abilities for robotic systems

Summary: Grasping and manipulating objects by robotic hands are among the most common assignments for automating operations performed manually. The tasks are often challenging for robots since human hands can robustly perform them even though objects can slide or roll on palms. The project is aimed at developing similar manipulation ability of a particular robotic system when an external object cannot be grasped by a robotic hand but can roll and slide on it. The study will be focused on extension of control and robotic oriented math/modeling/computational tools reported in

• Surov M., A.S. Shiriaev, L.B. Freidovich, S.V. Gusev and L.V. Paramonov. `Case study in non-prehensile manipulation: Planning and orbital stabilization of one-directional rolling for the 'Butterfly' robot,' in the Proceedings of the IEEE International Conference on Robotics and Automation (ICRA), pp. 1484-1489, 2015.

See movies:

• Brian Douglas movie: the link
• Maksim Surov movie: the link

Project No.3: Modern challenges in non-linear control theory: analysis and control of transverse dynamics

Summary: Controlling nonlinear mechanical systems with a limited actuation authority is quite common in applications. Indeed, an excess of a number of degrees of freedom of a system over a number of actuators can be due to inherent compliance of the system components or by design. For instance, a flying machine or underwater vehicle approximated by a rigid body will have six degrees of freedom, while they will be often equipped with range of actuators that can generate only four independent generalized forces to control the system's motions. Such structural property do not allow utilizing classical motion planning and control techniques based on reference tracking settings and Lyapunov function based analysis. The project will be focused on exploring new (nonlinear) techniques for controlling and analyzing agile system's motions based on appropriate modification of the problem settings and the so-called Zhukovsky stability concept. The study will be focused on extension of control and robotic oriented math/modeling/computational tools reported in

• Shiriaev A.S., L. Freidovich, and M.W. Spong. "Controlled invariants and trajectory planning for underactuated mechanical systems," IEEE Transactions on Automatic Control, 59(9): 2555-2561, 2014.