US 11,752,623 B2
Simulating task performance of virtual characters
Michael Gienger, Offenbach (DE)
Assigned to Honda Research Institute Europe GmbH, Offenbach/Main (DE)
Filed by Honda Research Institute Europe GmbH, Offenbach/Main (DE)
Filed on Mar. 30, 2021, as Appl. No. 17/216,702.
Prior Publication US 2022/0314437 A1, Oct. 6, 2022
Int. Cl. B25J 9/16 (2006.01); G05B 17/02 (2006.01)
CPC B25J 9/1605 (2013.01) [B25J 9/1607 (2013.01); B25J 9/1664 (2013.01); G05B 17/02 (2013.01)] 14 Claims
OG exemplary drawing
 
1. A method for controlling at least one effector trajectory of a robot for solving a predefined task by at least one virtual effector, the method comprising:
acquiring a sequence of postures, each posture including at least one contact point and a kinematic pose of the at least one virtual effector;
modifying at least one of a contact constraint topology and an object constraint topology according to the acquired sequence of postures,
wherein modifying the contact constraint topology comprises:
in case a contact location in an object frame of a current posture in the sequence of postures remains the same as a contact location of the corresponding contact in an immediately preceding posture of the sequence of postures;
removing a constraint of the contact to the object in the current posture; and
connecting a new constraint of the contact in the current posture to the corresponding contact in at least one immediately preceding posture of the sequence of postures; and
wherein modifying the object constraint topology comprises:
in case an object pose of the current posture in the sequence of postures remains the same as the object pose in an immediately preceding posture of the sequence of postures;
removing a constraint of the object in the current posture; and
connecting a new constraint of the object in the current posture to the corresponding object in at least one immediately preceding posture of the sequence of postures; and
generating a set of constraint equations based on at least one of the modified contact constraint topology and the modified object constraint topology;
performing constraint relaxation on the generated set of constraint equations to generate a task description including the relaxed set of constraint equations;
generating the at least one effector trajectory by applying a trajectory generation algorithm on the generated task description;
generating a control signal by performing an inverse kinematics algorithm on the generated at least one effector trajectory;
outputting the generated control signal to an output device;
generating, by the output device, image information displaying the at least one effector trajectory of the virtual effector based on the control signal; and
controlling at least one effector of the robot based on the generated at least one effector trajectory.