Lab Meeting, March 14, 2013 (Channing): The Design of LEO: a 2D Bipedal Walking Robot for Online Autonomous Reinforcement Learning (IROS 2010)

Authors: Erik Schuitema, Martijn Wisse, Thijs Ramakers and Pieter Jonker

Abstract: Real robots demonstrating online Reinforcement Learning (RL) to learn new tasks are hard to find. The specific properties and limitations of real robots have a large impact on their suitability for RL experiments. In this work, we derive the main hardware and software requirements that a RL robot should fulfill, and present our biped robot LEO that was specifically designed to meet these requirements. We verify its aptitude in autonomous walking experiments using a pre-programmed controller. Although there is room
for improvement in the design, the robot was able to walk, fall and stand up without human intervention for 8 hours, during which it made over 43,000 footsteps.

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