Planning Complex Physical Tasks for Disaster Response with a Humanoid Robot

Humanoid robots are attempting ever more complex tasks in lieu of humans. Disaster response is a promising area for the use of humanoids due to safety concerns. However, controlling a high DOF humanoid robot to autonomously perform a complex task in unknown and unstructured environments is challenging. In this paper we describe a simulation framework for humanoid grasping and transport tasks that includes dynamics, and is easily ported to a real physical humanoid robot. The system can be used to rapidly prototype humanoid motions and dynamics in simulation, and can then be ported to the physical hardware. Experimental results are presented, both in simulation and physical experiments, with the HUBO humanoid, on a task from the DARPA Robotics Challenge, attaching a fire hose to a hydrant.