Dynamograde - The force in walking – Dynamo-Grade

The Dynamo-Grade joint laboratory brings together the Gepetto team from LAAS-CNRS and Toward, the French partner of PAL Robotics, continuing a collaboration which was already in place. The objective is to create a competence center to design, program, produce and market fully autonomous legged robots (humanoids and quadrupeds) able to move and interact in partially structured dynamic environments.

For LAAS-CNRS, the strategy for accelerating innovations in artificial locomotion is to involve the industrial fabric by transferring part of the skills so as to make them gain technological maturity. For Toward, LabCom will boost research and innovation to bridge the gap between research platforms and the adoption of robots in the mass market.

LabCom aims to become a reference center able to develop the next generation of humanoid robots for which the Boston Dynamics Atlas robot is the first visible model. LabCom will directly fund the research team whose expertise is recognized for several outstanding firsts, and for the reproducibility of its results through the publication of free software. It will also make it possible to provide engineering resources that can support cutting-edge experimental developments, as well as privileged access to methods, models and software solutions marketed by Toward. LabCom’s main goal is to implement a complete solution for bipedal and quadrupedal artificial locomotion. LabCom will rely on several results acquired by the two partners, in particular during past collaboration. Toward has worked to develop TALOS together with LAAS-CNRS, the first full-size humanoid robot controlled by torque that became commercially available.

LAAS-CNRS has proposed several scientific innovations to control this type of robot, in particular the first real-time planner to calculate locomotion movements on 3D terrain (awarded in 2015 by the ANR). This year, LAAS-CNRS and Toward worked together to demonstrate the first full-body predictive controller on a humanoid robot, exploiting torque servo, advanced digital optimization and offline machine learning. LabCom proposes a rigorous work program to improve these innovations, finalize their implementation in reliable technological bricks and validate them experimentally on increasingly advanced legged robots. The work will be marked by several visible experimental successes, helping to promote collaboration, academic results and company products. The collaboration thus directly contributes to the long-term objectives of the two partners. As humanoid robotics does not immediately have a direct market, we are studying the production of interesting technical objects for other fields of application, using the appropriate structure with a technology supplier. This is the goal of the project, which is complementary with the LabCom ROB4FAM of the Gepetto group and Airbus.