M2 (1998-)

Fall  2001 News: M2 and Prof. Gill Pratt have moved to Olin College. Research is continuing. Contact Prof. Pratt for more information on the project.

News: November 2000. A new video has been added the videos page. It includes footage of standing in place under battery power in Washington, DC. It also includes some steps in place taken in the leg lab.

M2 is a 3D bipedal walking robot which is currently being developed in the MIT Leg Laboratory.  The robot has 12 active degrees of freedom: 3 in each hip, 1 in each knee, and 2 in each ankle.  It will be used to investigate

• Various walking algorithms
• Motion description and control techniques, particularly Virtual Model Control
• Force control actuation techniques, particularly Series Elastic Actuation
• Automatic learning techniques.

• Walk fast (1.0 meters/second)
• Walk efficiently
• Be reliable (work 9 out of 10 attempts)
• Have a large margin of stability and be robust to small disturbances (reasonable pushes)
• Be confident looking
• Become a "robotic workhorse" - a robot which can be reliably used to perform experiments without breaking
• Get it right the first time in design and schedule

Design, Construction, Parts, and Suppliers

• Parts Suppliers.

Milestones:

Accomplished

July 23, 1998: Project schedule complete.
August 14, 1998: M2 configuration decided.
August 28, 1998: Planar simulation with M2 weight parameters walking.
September 4, 1998: Preliminary CAD assembly of M2 done.
September 8, 1998: M2 Weight budget determined.
September 8, 1998: First progress meeting.
October 3, 1998: Full scale mockup of M2 built.
December 11, 1998: Three dimensional simulation of M2 walking.	[MPEG] [Cinepak Quicktime] [Sorenson Quicktime]
December 30, 1998: Frameless actuator prototype (FRAP) built.
January 14, 1999: Frameless actuator prototype tested.	Video of testing with 300 pound load, moving at top speeds of 9 inches per second: [Cinepak Quicktime (3.5MB)][Sorenson Quicktime (3.1MB)]
January 15,  1999: Mechanical power requirements determined.
February 15, 1999: Foot designed.
April 16, 1999: Final actuator designed.
May 19, 1999: 12 week lead parts ordered.
June 10, 1999: M2 Leg Designed.
June 30, 1999: M2 Vestibular System Designed.
July 30, 1999: Electronics Designed.
October 25, 1999: Full CAD assembly model completed.
November 30, 1999: Machined Parts Sent Out.
November 30, 1999: Electronic Boards and Parts Ordered.
December 16, 1999: Begin M2 Assembly.
January 6, 2000: Force Control Boards Populated
March 2000: Mechanical Assembly Complete.
April, 2000: Complete System Integration.
April 15, 2000: M2 Standing
July, 2000: M2 takes a step
August, 2000: M2 steps in place
September, 2000: M2 runs on batteries and radio-ethernet offsite just outside Washington, DC.

to be completed...

Data

• Video, data, source code and more from M2 simulation presented at CLAWAR99 in "Exploiting Natural Dynamics in the Control of a 3D Bipedal Walking Simulation"

Photographs

Videos

Publications

• Pratt, Jerry. Exploiting Inherent Robustness and Natural Dynamics in the Control of Bipedal Walking Robots.  Ph.D. Thesis, Computer Science Department, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, Massachusetts, 2000 [2MB PDF]
• David W. Robinson, Jerry E. Pratt, Daniel J. Paluska, Gill A. Pratt. Series Elastic Actuator Development for a Biomimetic Walking Robot. 1999 IEEE/ASME International Conference on Advanced Intelligent Mechatronics, Sept. 19-22, 1999. Atlanta, GA.

(ps) | (pdf)

• Pratt, Jerry, Pratt, Gill 1999. Exploiting Natural Dynamics in the Control of a 3D Bipedal Walking Simulation. Proceedings of the International Conference on Climbing and Walking Robots (CLAWAR99), Portsmouth, UK, September 1999 [PDF]
• Parseghian, Allen.  Control of a Simulated, Three-Dimensional Bipedal Robot to Iniate Walking, continue Walking and Rock Side-to-Side and Balance. Master's Thesis, Computer Science Department, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, Massachusetts, 2000 [PDF]
• Paluska, Daniel. Design of a Humanoid Biped for Walking Research. Master's Thesis, Mechanical Engineering Department, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, Massachusetts, 2000 [PDF]

Principal Investigator

Graduate Students(Past and Present)