Katsu Yamane's research while affiliated with Honda Research Institute USA, Inc. and other places
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Publications (140)
Reports on the technology of humanoid robotics which originated in Japan more than four decades ago, and the field has developed broadly.
We present a novel computational approach to design the robotic devices from high-level motion specifications. Our computational system uses a library of modular components—actuators, mounting brackets, and connectors—to define the space of possible robot designs. The process of creating a new robot begins with a set of input trajectories that spec...
We present a novel computational approach to optimizing the morphological design of robots. Our framework takes as input a parameterized robot design as well as a motion plan consisting of trajectories for end-effectors and, optionally, for its body. The algorithm optimizes the design parameters including link lengths and actuator placements wherea...
Precise task-space tracking with manipulator-type systems requires an accurate kinematic model. In contrast to traditional manipulators, sometimes it is difficult to obtain an accurate kinematic model of humanoid robots due to complex structure and link flexibility. Also, prolonged use of the robot will lead to some parts wearing out or being repla...
Current and previous single-legged hopping robots are energetically tethered and lack portability. Here, we present the design and control of an untethered, energetically autonomous single-legged hopping robot. The thrust-producing mechanism of the robot’s leg is an actuated prismatic joint, called a linear elastic actuator in parallel (LEAP). The...
Forward dynamics of general articulated rigid bodies has been an active research area for long, and a number of algorithms have been developed over the years. While most of these algorithms can be applied to humanoid robots, there are some unique features that make some algorithms more preferable than others. For example, humanoid robots usually ha...
Deformation of skin and muscle is essential for bringing an animated character to life. This deformation is difficult to animate in a realistic fashion using traditional techniques because of the subtlety of the skin deformations that must move appropriately for the character design. In this paper, we present an algorithm that generates natural, dy...
We present an iterative learning control algorithm for accurate task space tracking of kinematically redundant robots with stringent joint position limits and kinematic modeling errors. The iterative learning control update rule is in the task space and consists of adding a correction to the desired end-effector pose based on the tracking error. Th...
The anthropomorphic body form is a complex articulated system of links/limbs and joints, simultaneously redundant and underactuated, and capable of a wide range of sophisticated movement. The human body and its movement have long been a topic of study in physiology, anatomy, biomechanics, and neuroscience and have served as inspiration for humanoid...
The thirteen papers in this special section focus on the topic of movement science for humans and humanoids. The papers include the collection and organization of human movement data for enabling robotics research; the use of human movement as inspiration for humanoid planning, control, and motion generation; the development of algorithms for impro...
Estimating physical information by vision as humans do is useful for the applications with physical interaction in the real world. For example, observing muscle bulging infers how much force a person puts on the muscle to interact with an object or environment. Since the human skin deforms due to muscle activity, it is expected that skin deformatio...
This chapter presents a set of techniques for reconstructing and understanding human motions measured using current motion capture
technologies. We first review modeling and computation techniques for obtaining motion and force information from human motion data (Sect. 68.2). Here we show that kinematics and dynamics algorithms for articulated rigi...
Dance notation is a useful tool for providing a high-level description of complex movements to others. Given a description, human dancers are able to reproduce the intended detailed movements easily because they know how to move their joints to generate the described motion either through training or common sense. Robots, on the other hand, lack su...
Precise task-space tracking with manipulator-type systems requires accurate kinematics models. In contrast to traditional manipulators, it is difficult to obtain an accurate kinematic model of humanoid robots due to complex structure and link flexibility. Also, prolonged use of the robot will lead to some parts wearing out or being replaced with a...
This paper presents algorithms to compute the generalized distance between two separated or penetrating compact convex sets, which is defined as the minimum or maximum scale factor of a given gauge set such that the scaled gauge set intersects or is contained in the Minkowski difference of the two sets. The traditional Euclidean distance is a speci...
Conducting hardware experiment is often expensive in various aspects such as potential damage to the robot and the number of people required to operate the robot safely. Computer simulation is used in place of hardware in such cases, but it suffers from so-called simulation bias in which policies tuned in simulation do not work on hardware due to d...
Our goal is to bring animation characters to life in the real world. We present a bipedal robot that looks like and walks like an animation character. We start from animation data of a character walking. We develop a bipedal robot which corresponds to lower part of the character following its kinematic structure. The links are 3D printed and the jo...
Systems, methods and products for animating non-humanoid characters with human motion are described. One aspect includes selecting key poses included in initial motion data at a computing system; obtaining non-humanoid character key poses which provide a one to one correspondence to selected key poses in said initial motion data; and statically map...
This paper studies the balancing of simple planar bipedal robot models in dynamic, unstable environments such as seesaw, bongoboard, and board on a curved floor. This paper derives output feedback controllers that successfully stabilize seesaw, bongoboard, and curved floor models using only global robot information and with no direct feedback of th...
Various embodiments of the invention provide a control framework for robots such that a robot can use all joints simultaneously to track motion capture data and maintain balance. Embodiments of the invention provide a framework enabling complex reference movements to be automatically tracked, for example reference movements derived from a motion ca...
This paper presents a novel universal balancing controller that successfully stabilizes a planar bipedal robot in dynamic, unstable environments like seesaw and bongoboards, and also in static environments like curved and flat floors. These different dynamic systems have state spaces with different dimensions, and hence instead of using full state...
Model-based control techniques, which use a model of robot dynamics to compute force/torque control commands, have a proven record for achieving accuracy and compliance in force-controllable robot manipulators. However, applying such methods to humanoid and legged systems has yet to happen due to challenges such as: 1) under-actuation inherent in t...
Simple inverted pendulum models and their variants are often used to control humanoid robots in order to simplify the control design process. These simple models have significantly fewer degrees of freedom than the full robot model. The design and choice of these simple models are based on the designer's intuition, and the reduced state mapping and...
Creating animations for entertainment humanoid robots is a time consuming process because of high aesthetic quality requirements as well as poor tracking performance due to small actuators used in order to realize human size. Once deployed, such robots are also expected to work for years with minimum downtime for maintenance. In this paper, we demo...
Ray shooting is a well-studied problem in computer graphics and also has applications in robotics such as collision detection and contact force optimization. Unfortunately, most ray-shooting algorithms developed for graphics applications only allow 3-dimensional (3-D) objects represented as triangle meshes, and therefore are not suited for objects...
This paper presents a method for synthesizing motions of a humanoid robot that receives an object from a human, with focus on a natural object passing scenario where the human initiates the passing motion by moving an object towards the robot, which continuously adapts its motion to the observed human motion in real time. In this scenario, the robo...
This paper proposes a new grasp force efficiency (GFE) measure that considers not only contact point locations but also the hand configuration and mechanism. GFE evaluates the largest wrench applied to the object that the grasp can resist with unit contact forces. Traditional GFE measures depend solely on the contact point locations without conside...
This paper presents an efficient algorithm for computing a distance measure between two compact convex sets Q and A, defined as the minimum scale factor such that the scaled Q is not disjoint from A. An important application of this algorithm in robotics is the computation of the minimum distance between two objects, which can be performed by takin...
This paper summarizes two pieces of work related to human locomotion. The common hypothesis underlying these works is that human locomotion is characterized by, and possibly optimized to, the inherent mechanical and sensory-motor network structures. The first work investigates the effect of foot geometry on the walking speed and efficiency. Inspire...
Simplified models such as the inverted pendulum model are often used in humanoid robot control because the full dynamics model of humanoid robots is too complex to design a controller. These models are usually derived from simple mechanical systems that represent the essential properties of the robot dynamics. This method for deriving simplified mo...
This paper presents methods and experimental results regarding the identification of kinematic and dynamic parameters of force-controlled biped humanoid robots. We first describe a kinematic calibration method to estimate joint angle sensor offsets. The method is practical in the sense that it only uses joint angle and link orientation sensors, whi...
This paper investigates the optimization and control of biped walking motion on a rolling cylinder. We design a balance controller for a simplified linear model of a biped robot, which comprises a foot connected to a lump mass through an ankle joint and a translational spring and damper. We also derive a collision model for the system consisting of...
This paper presents a control framework for a biped robot to maintain balance and walk on a rolling ball. The control framework consists of two primary components: a balance controller and a footstep planner. The balance controller is responsible for the balance of the whole system and combines a state-feedback controller designed by pole assignmen...
In this paper, we demonstrate that a neuromuscular controller built based on the human anatomical structure and motion data can realize human-like responses to unexpected disturbances during locomotion. This particular work concerns the response to trips due to obstacles and shows that the two strategies identified in biomechanics emerge from a sin...
Motion capture is a good source of data for programming humanoid robots because it contains the natural styles and synergies of human behaviors. However, it is difficult to directly use captured motion data because the kinematics and dynamics of humanoid robots differ significantly from those of humans. In our previous work, we developed a controll...
In this work, we perform the challenging task of a humanoid robot standing up from a chair. First we recorded demonstrations of sit-to-stand motions from normal human subjects as well as actors performing stylized standing motions (e.g. imitating an elderly person). Ground contact force information was also collected for these motions, in order to...
In this paper, we present a system that estimates and visualizes muscle tensions in real time using optical motion capture and electromyography (EMG). The system overlays rendered musculoskeletal human model on top of a live video image of the subject. The subject therefore has an impression that he/she sees the muscles with tension information thr...
This paper presents a method for mapping captured human motion with stepping to a humanoid model, considering the current state and the controller behavior. The mapping algorithm modifies the joint angle, trunk and center of mass (COM) trajectories so that the motion can be tracked and desired contact states can be achieved. The mapping is performe...
This paper presents an approach to planning and synthesizing collision-free motions of characters with extreme physical capabilities,
or superheroes, using a human motion database. The framework utilizes the author’s previous work on momentum-based motion
editing, where the user can scale the momentum of a motion capture sequence to make more or le...
Human motion coordination is a long-standing research issue in biomechanics, and it should also have some implications for humanoid robot control.We have built a whole-body somatosensory reflex model based on our neuromusculoskeletal model and identified its parameters through non-invasive measurements and statistical analysis. Such models are cruc...
Recently, several controllers have been proposed for humanoid robots which rely on full-body dynamic models. The estimation of inertial parameters from data is a critical component for obtaining accurate models for control. However, floating base systems, such as humanoid robots, incur added challenges to this task (e.g. contact forces must be meas...
This paper presents a method for generating animations of non-humanoid characters from human motion capture data. Characters considered in this work have proportion and/or topology significantly different from humans, but are expected to convey expressions and emotions through body language that are understandable to human viewers. Keyframing is mo...
We present an integrated framework for interactive editing of the momentum and external forces in a motion capture sequence. Allowing user control of the momentum and forces provides a powerful and intuitive editing tool for dynamic motions. To make a higher jump, for example, the user simply increases the linear momentum in the vertical direction,...
A large motion data has been stored by using a motion capture system such that humanoid robots or CG characters can perform human-like behaviors. However prerecorded data is not reused efficiently since it is difficult to retrieve a specified motion data from a large dataset, and to modify the motion data to fit desired motion patterns. We have stu...
This paper describes a novel approach to modeling behavioral communication for humanoid robots that interact with their partners. Communication is established based on reaction through recognition of motion patterns of partners. Previous work of symbolization of motion primitives using Hidden Markov Models (HMMs) allows robots to recognize the obse...
This paper investigates the effect of foot shape on biped locomotion. In particular, we consider planar biped robots whose feet are composed of curved surfaces at toe and heel and a flat section between them. We developed an algorithm that can optimize the gait pattern for a set of foot shape, walk speed and step length. The optimization is formula...
This paper presents a control framework for humanoid robots that uses all joints simultaneously to track motion capture data and maintain balance. The controller comprises two main components: a balance controller and a tracking controller. The balance controller uses a regulator designed for a simplified humanoid model to obtain the desired input...
In this paper we present an original method to estimate in vivo the joint dynamics of the human limbs. The method is based on a non-invasive and painless technology making use of an optical motion capture system and an associated skeletal model to record the human motion and compute its kinematics and its dynamics. The formalism that is used for th...
In this paper, we propose two methods to quantitatively analyze the motor skill in sports. The first method is the dimensionality reduction using the principal component analysis (PCA). The motion data, e.g. the joint angles (143-dimensional vector) or the muscle tensions (989-dimensional vector), are projected to a lower dimensional space that wel...
In this paper, we propose a method for realtime estimation of whole-body muscle tensions. The main problem of muscle tension estimation is that there are infinite number of solutions to realize a particular joint torque due to the actuation redundancy. Numerical optimization techniques, e.g. quadratic programming, are often employed to obtain a uni...
The motion analysis and the estimation of somatosensory information (including muscle tension) have been researched, and these techniques can be applied to assist the sport training and rehabilitation. For these applications, the realtime estimation and visualization of motion data and somatosensory information is necessary. The existing method is,...
Contact-free estimation of the human somatosensory information is an essential skill for robots working in daily environments. The main objective of this paper is to develop a method for estimating muscle tensions without any sensors attached to the body. Muscle tension is an important information for evaluating physical load during motions. Existi...
The main focus of this paper is to investigate the essential differences among four forward dynamics algorithms: the Articulated-Body Algorithm (ABA) and Divide-and-Conquer Algorithm (DCA) by Featherstone; the Constraint Force Algorithm (CFA) by Fijany et al.; and the Assembly—Disassembly Algorithm (ADA) by the present authors. All of the algorithm...
Database of human motion has been widely used for recognizing human motion and synthesizing humanoid motions. In this paper,
we propose a data structure for storing and extracting human motion data and demonstrate that the database can be applied
to the recognition and motion synthesis problems in robotics. We develop an efficient method for buildi...
This study investigated how baseball players generate large angular velocity at each joint by coordinating the joint torque and velocity-dependent torque during overarm throwing. Using a four-segment model (i.e., trunk, upper arm, forearm, and hand) that has 13 degrees of freedom, we conducted the induced acceleration analysis to determine the acce...
This paper presents a dynamics simulator that can handle complex robotic systems including position-controlled joints and closed kinematic chains. We first extend our prevous algorithm for linear-time forward dynamics algorithm to handle closed kinematic chains. The extended algorithm is formally presented for the first time. We then present anothe...
This paper presents a numerically robust algorithm for solving linear complementarity problems (LCPs), and applies it to simulation of frictional contacts of articulated rigid bodies each modeled as a general polygonal object. We first point out two problems of the popular pivot-based LCP solver called Lemke Algorithm and its extension with lexicog...
We propose a large-scale motion database structure for searching and reusing existing motion data. Motion data from different sources, marker sets, and skeleton models can be included in the database. All samples from multiple motion clips are put into a single database to consider transition from one clip to another. The database has a binary-tree...
In this paper, we build a whole-body neuromusculoskeletal network model including somatic reflex, and identify its parameters through non-invasive measurements and statistical analysis. Our neuromuscular model consists of two parts. The first part models the neuromuscular network to represent the relationships between spinal nerve signals and muscl...
Humans build a cognitive map by extracting geometry and semantic information from the real world. This map plays a significant role in navigation and communication. In this paper, we propose an algorithm for mobile robots for building cognitive maps autonomously. The robot observes the environment with a stereo camera to detect regions that are lik...
We present a markerless motion capture system able to determine the kinematic structure while measuring joint movement. In addition to volume data, we also use texture data to precisely measure the degrees of freedom that do not affect the shape, e.g., pronation/supination angles of the forearm and shank. We first obtain topology using a Reeb graph...
This paper presents image stabilization for microscopy using horizontal visual feedback control of the objective lens through a five-bar linkage and piezoelectric actuators, and its application to in vivo imaging. Even very small in vivo motion due to heartbeat and breathing makes microscopic observation difficult by blurring the microscope image o...
In this paper, we build a whole-body neuromusculoskeletal network model including somatic reflex, and identify its parameters through non-invasive measurements and statistical analysis. Such models are crucial for analyzing and estimating signals in the nervous system. Our neuromuscular model consists of two parts. The first part models the neuromu...
We present a solution to estimate in-vivo the joint dynamics of the human limbs during passive movements. The method is based on well-known modelling and approach used in robotics that allow simultaneous multi-joint estimation. The modelling of the human body and the human joint as well as the method are described. The experimental set-up based on...
Recent progress in the algorithm as well as the processor power have made the dynamics simulation of complex kinematic chains more realistic in various fields such as human motion simulation and molecular dynamics. The computation can be further accelerated by employing parallel processing on multiple processors. In fact, parallel processing enviro...
While traditional method of estimating joiont model using thinning process of 3D shapes cannot deal sphere joint model, this paper shows a method of estimating sphere joint model by comparing 3D shapes of many frames with using texture data and technique of Reeb Graph. 3D shapes is calculated by markerless motion capture with using viewing field in...
This paper proposes a method for scheduling parallel forward dynamics simulation of complex human skeleton models. The method is applicable to several parallel algorithms such as Assembly-Disassembly Algorithm and Divide-and-Conquer Algorithm. These algorithms use the Inverse Articulated-Body Interia which can be computed by incrementally adding th...
In this paper, we build a mathematical model of the whole-body neuromuscular network and identify its parameters by optical motion capture, inverse dynamics computation, and statistical analysis. The model includes a skeleton, a musculo-tendon network, and a neuromuscular network. We model the relationship between the spinal nerve and muscle tensio...
Motion capture systems are used to obtain motion data such that humanoid robots or computer graphics (CG) characters can behave naturally. However, it has proven to be hard not only to modify the capture data without losing its reality but also to search for the required capture data in a lot of capture data. In this paper, we provide a solution to...
In this paper, we build a mathematical model of the whole-body neuromuscular network and identify its parameters by optical motion capture, inverse kinematics, inverse dynamics computation, and statistical analysis. The model includes a skeleton, a musculotendon network, and a neuromuscular network. The skeleton is composed of 155 joints representi...
Though seldom identified, the human joints dynamics is important in the fields of medical robotics and medical research. We present a general solution to estimate in-vivo and simultaneously the passive dynamics of the human limbs' joints. It is based on the use of the multi-body description of the human body and its kinematics and dynamics computat...
This paper presents a new formulation the forward dynamics algorithm called assembly-disassembly algorithm (ADA) developed by the authors. The algorithm has the complexity of O(N) for serial computation and O(log N) for parallel computation on O(N) processors, which is comparable to the current fastet algorithms such as articulated-body algorithm (...
A body of effort has been devoted to developing efficient algorithms for kinematics and dynamics computation of robotic mechanisms,
and has been successfully applied to control and simulation of complex mechanisms including industrial manipulators and humanoid
robots. Thanks to such effort, as well as the recent progress in the computation power, i...
In this paper, we build a mathematical model of the whole-body neuromuscular network and identify its parameters by optical motion capture, inverse dynamics computation, and statistical analysis. The model includes a skeleton, a musculotendon network, and a neuromuscular network. The skeleton is composed of 155 joints representing the inertial prop...
Communication skill is essential for social robots in various environments such as homes, offices, and hospitals, where the robots are expected to interact with humans. In this paper, we model the primitive nonverbal communication between two persons by mimetic communication model. The model consists of three groups of hidden Markov models (HMMs) h...
In order to analyze human motions, it is efficient way to use musculo-skeletal model and inverse dynamics. Indeed there is some commercially available softwares which implement musculo-skeletal models to analyze human motions, but models in those softwares doesn't reflect differences among individuals. In this research we propose the way to estimat...
A motion capture system is a useful tool to realize humanoid robots or CG characters that can perform human-looking behaviors. Although the amount of captured data increases, we can't necessarily make efficient use of the capture data corpus. We have studied the imitative learning model based on motion recognition/generation and communication model...
Developments of computer make it possible to simulate detailed human skeletal model. So we need detailed kinematic parameters of a individual user. In this paper, we propose a method to estimate kinematic parameters of human skeletal model with using motion capture data. Because joint rotation center differs by attitude, estimation uses frames that...
Human upper limb joints dynamics is very important in the fields of humanoid robotics, medical robotics as well as medical research. To make human-like passive movements of the arms when walking humanoid robot arms must have similar dynamics to the human arms, even more if this arm is to be used as a prosthesis. Moreover medical diagnosis of muscle...
Understanding the effect of each muscle activation on the joint rotation is important for biomechanicst, clinicians, physical therapists, and sports coaches. However, it is difficult to intuitively understand each muscle action on the joint rotation, because a muscle action changes in a complicated manner depending on two aspects of human body stru...
This paper presents a stable penalty-based model for simulating frictional contacts between many complex objects. The major advantage of our model is that it solves the problems in implementing Coulomb's friction model for computer simulation: iterative computation and slip velocity threshold. We also introduce a robust method for computing the nor...