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arXiv · 2405.05096

Rapid Co-design of Task-Specialized Whegged Robots for Ad-Hoc Needs

Varun Madabushi·Katie M. Popek·Craig Knuth·Galen Mullins·Brian A. Bittner
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Abstract

In this work, we investigate the use of co-design methods to iterate upon robot designs in the field, performing time sensitive, ad-hoc tasks. Our method optimizes the morphology and wheg trajectory for a MiniRHex robot, producing 3D printable structures and leg trajectory parameters. Tested in four terrains, we show that robots optimized in simulation exhibit strong sim-to-real transfer and are nearly twice as efficient as the nominal platform when tested in hardware.

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Varun Madabushi, Katie M. Popek, Craig Knuth, Galen Mullins, Brian A. Bittner. 2024-05-08. Rapid Co-design of Task-Specialized Whegged Robots for Ad-Hoc Needs. https://arxiv.org/abs/2405.05096

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