The last decade has seen tremendous progress in legged robots, driven by (among other things) optimization-based control. With Patrick Wensing, Yue Hu, Adrien Escande, Nicolas Mansard, and Andrea del Prete, we survey the field with an eye on what’s next

Within the breadth of work in this area, we identify four main points of distinction.

  1. The choice of contact model, with implications on discontinuity or differentiability, and whether/how an algorithm must sequence the schedule of environmental contacts.
  2. The role of simplified models, which efficiently capture essential dynamic properties, in enabling real-time control and planning.
  3. The choice between numerical methods for optimal control (e.g. iLQR/DDP/collocation).
  4. Optimization-based (often QP) strategies for realizing motion planes via real-time feedback.

We hope this will serve as a useful introduction for both new and experienced roboticists, particularly those with new ideas in control and learning! Check out the preprint on arxiv–feedback is welcome!



https://arxiv.org/abs/2211.11644