In order to strengthen our dedicated team in the Robotics Innovation Center (RIC) research department in Bremen we are looking for a
Master Thesis/Internship Whole Body Control (full-time/part-time, 3 – 9 months)
The Robotics Innovation Center research department, headed by Prof. Dr. Dr. h.c. Kirchner, develop robot systems that are used for complex tasks on land, under water, in the air, and in space. The recently established underactuated lab at DFKI-RIC is looking for outstanding students to join us in pushing the boundaries of highly dynamic and agile robots. Past internships and master thesis students have presented their work at the Summer of Underactuation events in 2022 and 2023.
Topic:
Recently, legged robots [2] have become a prime topic for robotics research. Whole body control [1] has become the de-facto method of choice for the instantaneous control of legged robotic systems. On the other hand, whole body trajectory optimization has become a popular tool for discovering optimal trajectories for a variety of complex tasks we expect from humanoids. However, these trajectories might not be stable on a real robot. This master thesis explores the task of online stabilization of offline generated whole-body trajectories using QP based whole body control. The work will be applied to the simulation and control of biped and quadruped robots being developed at DFKI RIC.
Our requirements:
Mathematical: Whole body control, Trajectory Optimization, Rigid body kinematics and dynamics, Linear Algebra.
Programming: C/C++, Python, experience with WBC frameworks, Model based optimization frameworks (e.g. drake, crocoddyl), experience with control of real systems
Literature:
1. Dennis Mronga, Tobias Knobloch, José de Gea Fernández & Frank Kirchner (2020) A constraint-based approach for human–robot collision avoidance, Advanced Robotics, 34:5, 265-281, DOI: https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/01691864.2020.1721322
2. Bergonzani, I., Popescu, M., Kumar, S. and Kirchner, F., 2023. Fast Dynamic Walking with RH5 Humanoid Robot. IEEE-RAS International Conference on Humanoid Robots (Humanoids), 2023.
Please contact Dennis Mronga for further information and send your application via E-Mail to Dennis.Mronga[at]dfki.de.
Deutsches Forschungszentrum für Künstliche Intelligenz GmbH
Research Department
Robotics Innovation Center
Robert-Hooke-Str. 1
28359 Bremen, Germany
www.dfki.de/ric
Phone: +49 421 17845 6560
Dennis.Mronga@dfki.de
