Terrain Irregularity Sensing by Evaluating Feet Coordinate Standard Deviation
Locomotion over rough terrain is still a problem yet to be solved for legged robots. One of the problems arises from the inability to identify terrain roughness during locomotion, which could be crucial for decision-making and successful task completion. Our proposed terrain roughness method is insp...
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2025-01-01
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| author | Tomas Luneckas Mindaugas Luneckas Dainius Udris |
| author_facet | Tomas Luneckas Mindaugas Luneckas Dainius Udris |
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| description | Locomotion over rough terrain is still a problem yet to be solved for legged robots. One of the problems arises from the inability to identify terrain roughness during locomotion, which could be crucial for decision-making and successful task completion. Our proposed terrain roughness method is inspired by the observation that humans can sense their limb position in space without looking at them, which allows us to estimate obstacle heights. This method is based on robot feet coordinate standard deviation (further referred to as <inline-formula><math xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" display="inline"><semantics><mrow><mi>S</mi><mi>D</mi></mrow></semantics></math></inline-formula>) parameter evaluation. <inline-formula><math xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" display="inline"><semantics><mrow><mi>S</mi><mi>D</mi></mrow></semantics></math></inline-formula> values could be categorized to represent different terrain roughness, and such categories could be useful for selecting different gaits for different terrains. In this paper, we investigate the possibility of using already known feet coordinates to evaluate terrain roughness by calculating their standard deviation (<inline-formula><math xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" display="inline"><semantics><mrow><mi>S</mi><mi>D</mi></mrow></semantics></math></inline-formula>). We present simulation results that show that the <inline-formula><math xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" display="inline"><semantics><mrow><mi>S</mi><mi>D</mi></mrow></semantics></math></inline-formula> value only depends on terrain roughness and is not influenced by large terrain slopes. Experiments were conducted with real robots while walking over obstacles with different gaits to validate the method. This research mainly aims to test how robot gaits influence <inline-formula><math xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" display="inline"><semantics><mrow><mi>S</mi><mi>D</mi></mrow></semantics></math></inline-formula> parameters for terrain roughness evaluation. The experimental results showed that the <inline-formula><math xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" display="inline"><semantics><mrow><mi>S</mi><mi>D</mi></mrow></semantics></math></inline-formula> parameter calculated from the robot’s foot coordinates can be used to evaluate terrain roughness. The robot’s gaits have little to no influence on the <inline-formula><math xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" display="inline"><semantics><mrow><mi>S</mi><mi>D</mi></mrow></semantics></math></inline-formula> parameter. |
| format | Article |
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| spelling | doaj-art-05ea4c8e229240ffbf179503221e90112025-01-10T13:15:27ZengMDPI AGApplied Sciences2076-34172025-01-0115141110.3390/app15010411Terrain Irregularity Sensing by Evaluating Feet Coordinate Standard DeviationTomas Luneckas0Mindaugas Luneckas1Dainius Udris2Department of Electrical Engineering, Faculty of Electronics, Vilnius Gediminas Technical University, Saulėtekio al. 11, LT-10223 Vilnius, LithuaniaDepartment of Electrical Engineering, Faculty of Electronics, Vilnius Gediminas Technical University, Saulėtekio al. 11, LT-10223 Vilnius, LithuaniaDepartment of Electrical Engineering, Faculty of Electronics, Vilnius Gediminas Technical University, Saulėtekio al. 11, LT-10223 Vilnius, LithuaniaLocomotion over rough terrain is still a problem yet to be solved for legged robots. One of the problems arises from the inability to identify terrain roughness during locomotion, which could be crucial for decision-making and successful task completion. Our proposed terrain roughness method is inspired by the observation that humans can sense their limb position in space without looking at them, which allows us to estimate obstacle heights. This method is based on robot feet coordinate standard deviation (further referred to as <inline-formula><math xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" display="inline"><semantics><mrow><mi>S</mi><mi>D</mi></mrow></semantics></math></inline-formula>) parameter evaluation. <inline-formula><math xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" display="inline"><semantics><mrow><mi>S</mi><mi>D</mi></mrow></semantics></math></inline-formula> values could be categorized to represent different terrain roughness, and such categories could be useful for selecting different gaits for different terrains. In this paper, we investigate the possibility of using already known feet coordinates to evaluate terrain roughness by calculating their standard deviation (<inline-formula><math xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" display="inline"><semantics><mrow><mi>S</mi><mi>D</mi></mrow></semantics></math></inline-formula>). We present simulation results that show that the <inline-formula><math xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" display="inline"><semantics><mrow><mi>S</mi><mi>D</mi></mrow></semantics></math></inline-formula> value only depends on terrain roughness and is not influenced by large terrain slopes. Experiments were conducted with real robots while walking over obstacles with different gaits to validate the method. This research mainly aims to test how robot gaits influence <inline-formula><math xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" display="inline"><semantics><mrow><mi>S</mi><mi>D</mi></mrow></semantics></math></inline-formula> parameters for terrain roughness evaluation. The experimental results showed that the <inline-formula><math xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" display="inline"><semantics><mrow><mi>S</mi><mi>D</mi></mrow></semantics></math></inline-formula> parameter calculated from the robot’s foot coordinates can be used to evaluate terrain roughness. The robot’s gaits have little to no influence on the <inline-formula><math xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" display="inline"><semantics><mrow><mi>S</mi><mi>D</mi></mrow></semantics></math></inline-formula> parameter.https://www.mdpi.com/2076-3417/15/1/411hexapod robotstandard deviationterrain roughnessadaptive locomotionterrain sensing |
| spellingShingle | Tomas Luneckas Mindaugas Luneckas Dainius Udris Terrain Irregularity Sensing by Evaluating Feet Coordinate Standard Deviation Applied Sciences hexapod robot standard deviation terrain roughness adaptive locomotion terrain sensing |
| title | Terrain Irregularity Sensing by Evaluating Feet Coordinate Standard Deviation |
| title_full | Terrain Irregularity Sensing by Evaluating Feet Coordinate Standard Deviation |
| title_fullStr | Terrain Irregularity Sensing by Evaluating Feet Coordinate Standard Deviation |
| title_full_unstemmed | Terrain Irregularity Sensing by Evaluating Feet Coordinate Standard Deviation |
| title_short | Terrain Irregularity Sensing by Evaluating Feet Coordinate Standard Deviation |
| title_sort | terrain irregularity sensing by evaluating feet coordinate standard deviation |
| topic | hexapod robot standard deviation terrain roughness adaptive locomotion terrain sensing |
| url | https://www.mdpi.com/2076-3417/15/1/411 |
| work_keys_str_mv | AT tomasluneckas terrainirregularitysensingbyevaluatingfeetcoordinatestandarddeviation AT mindaugasluneckas terrainirregularitysensingbyevaluatingfeetcoordinatestandarddeviation AT dainiusudris terrainirregularitysensingbyevaluatingfeetcoordinatestandarddeviation |