The goal of THING is to advance the perceptual capabilities of highly mobile legged platforms through haptic perception and active exploration. In this light, THING will deliver: 1) Novel foot designs for enhanced tactile perception and locomotion, 2) Improved perceptual capability, enriching existing modalities (lidar, vision) with haptic information, 3) Heightened physical sense of the environment, including friction, ground stability (difficult through vision alone), and 4) Enhanced mobility through improved perception, prediction, and control.
The project has succeeded in the development of: 1) novel mechatronic designs and prototyping of adaptive feet and ankles for the ANYmal quadruped, 2) new localisation and navigation algorithms fusing haptic information with traditional exteroceptive perception, 3) novel control methods for physical interaction and haptic sensing of the environment, 4) novel planning and optimisation approaches to leverage whole-body impedance and adaptive feet.
We extensively tested the scientific outcomes of the THING project in real-world scenarios, including mines and sewers. In subterranean environments we showed how the robot can robustly navigate the difficult terrain, build a 3D and thermal map of the infrastructure (e.g. indicating which mechanical parts are overheating) and feel the ground to check for surface quality. The project has enabled enhanced mobility and new modes of perception to achieve inspection tasks in challenging industrial environments.
