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Localization and Sensing for Hopping Robots

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Abstract

This paper describes the state of the art of hopping robots for space exploration and new conceptual advances in algorithms for localization and sensing of hopping robots. We first review the state of the art of hopping robot systems and describe their characteristics with reference to past and current space missions. Then, we briefly summarize the operational principles of minimally actuated jumping robots that are suitable for exploring the unstructured terrain of celestial bodies. These principles are supported by the description of some of the key mechanisms implemented, and by laboratory tests. Then, a new localization algorithm for hopping localization that fuses camera, inertial and acceleration data to compute the most likely landing location of the robot is proposed. To support localization with geo-referenced measures, we also briefly propose a new stereo system, based on omnidirectional cameras, whose physical characteristics are well suited for a hopping robot. Computer simulations of the localization algorithm, together with preliminary geometrical analysis of the proposed stereo system, support our claims of their applicability to planetary exploration. Conclusions and plans for future development end the paper.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Computer Science, University of Verona, 37134, Verona, Italy

    Paolo Fiorini, Claudio Cosma & Mirko Confente

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  1. Paolo Fiorini
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  2. Claudio Cosma
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  3. Mirko Confente
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Correspondence to Paolo Fiorini.

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Paolo Fiorini holds the Laurea in EE from the University of Padova, (Italy), the MSEE from the University of California at Irvine (USA), and the Ph.D. in ME from UCLA (USA). From 1985 to 2000, he was with NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory, California Institute of Technology, where he worked on telerobotics and teloperated systems, small hopping robots for planetary exploration, and service robotics. Since 2000 he is an Associate Professor of Control Systems at the School of Sciences of the University of Verona (Italy). He is Co-Chairman of the IEEE Technical Committees on Service Robotics and on Search, Safety and Rescue Robots. He is Chairman of the Italian chapter of the IEEE Robotics and Automation Society, has served two terms in the Administrative Committee of the IEEE Robotics and Automation Society, and he is an Associate Editor of the IEEE Transactions on Automation Science and Engineering and of the journal Autonomous Robots.

Claudio Cosma received the Laurea Degree in Computer Science in 2002 from the Faculty of Science of Verona. Currently, he is a Ph.D. student in robotics and a research assistant. His research is mainly concerned with planning and dynamic control of nonholonomic mobile manipulators. During 2003 he managed and participated to the development of a mobile manipulator for light logistics for the pharmaceutical industry.

Mirko Confente received the B.S. and M.S. degrees in Computer Science from the University of Verona, Italy, in 2002 and in 2004, respectively. From 2002 to 2004, he was also a Research Associate at the Robotics Laboratory of the Department of Computer Science. His research interests include robotics, omnidirectional and stereo vision, and factory automation. For his Master’s thesis, he pursued research on self localization of hopping robots during exploration missions, and during his permanence in the robotics laboratory he was involved in a research program on mobile manipulation, applied to the development of an autonomous mobile robot for the retrieval and delivery of small parcel in a warehouse environment.

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Fiorini, P., Cosma, C. & Confente, M. Localization and Sensing for Hopping Robots. Auton Robot 18, 185–200 (2005). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10514-005-0725-y

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