Description

New advancements in several robotics fields allowed quadruped robots to execute dynamic maneuvers, perceive the surroundings and plan for trajectories considering contacts. Several private and public endeavors are trying to build autonomous quadruped robots that could have an impact in the near future for our society. In this sense, the Open Dynamic Robot Initiative (ODRI, https://open-dynamic-robot-initiative.github.io) created the robot SOLO, an open hardware and 3D printable quadruped, designed for the research on robotics control, perception and planning. This thesis proposal aims at designing, printing and integrating a SOLO autonomy payload, thus extending the capabilities of the initial version of SOLO, which only includes the platform with the mobility actuators and sensors (motors and encoders). The project will endow SOLO with an onboard battery, onboard processing unit, and onboard navigation sensors (e.g. cameras and/or lidar). The selected candidate will join the research team of the mobile robotics line working on a SOLO quadruped robot at the Institut de Robòtica i Informàtica Industrial, CSIC-UPC. The student will potentially be supported by a UPC-INIREC fellowship throughout the semester and a publication of the system design as open Hardware through the ODRI initiative will be targeted together with the thesis report.

UPCommons: link

The work is under the scope of the following projects:

• AUDEL: Autonomous package delivery in urban areas (web)