The mathematics of coordinated control of prosthetic arms and manipulators.

This paper presents a technique for adapting existing motion of a human-like character to have the desired features that are specified by a set of constraints This problem can be typically formulated as a spacetime constraint problem Our approach combines a hierarchical curve fitting technique with a new inverse kinematics solver Using the kinematics solver, we can adjust the configuration of an articulated figure to meet the constraints in each frame Through the fitting technique, the motion displacement of every joint at each constrained frame is interpolated and thus smoothly propagated to frames We are able to adaptively add motion details to satisfy the constraints within a specified tolerance by adopting a multilevel Bspline representation which also provides a speedup for the interpolation The performance of our system is further enhanced by the new inverse kinematics solver We present a closed-form solution to compute the joint angles of a limb linkage This analytical method greatly reduces the burden of a numerical optimization to find the solutions for full degrees of freedom of a human-like articulated figure We demonstrate that the technique can be used for retargetting a motion to compensate for geometric variations caused by both characters and environments Furthermore, we can also use this technique for directly manipulating a motion clip through a graphical interface CR Categories: I37 [Computer Graphics]: Threedimensional Graphics—Animation; G12 [Numerical Analysis]: Approximation—Spline and piecewise polynomial approximation

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A hierarchical approach to interactive motion editing for human-like figures

Optimization is an appealing way to compute the motion of an animated character because it allows the user to specify the desired motion in a sparse, intuitive way. The difficulty of solving this problem for complex characters such as humans is due in part to the high dimensionality of the search space. The dimensionality is an artifact of the problem representation because most dynamic human behaviors are intrinsically low dimensional with, for example, legs and arms operating in a coordinated way. We describe a method that exploits this observation to create an optimization problem that is easier to solve. Our method utilizes an existing motion capture database to find a low-dimensional space that captures the properties of the desired behavior. We show that when the optimization problem is solved within this low-dimensional subspace, a sparse sketch can be used as an initial guess and full physics constraints can be enabled. We demonstrate the power of our approach with examples of forward, vertical, and turning jumps; with running and walking; and with several acrobatic flips.

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Synthesizing physically realistic human motion in low-dimensional, behavior-specific spaces

An articulated figure is often modeled as a set of rigid segments connected with joints. Its configuration can be altered by varying the joint angles. Although it is straight forward to compute figure configurations given joint angles (forward kinematics), it is more difficult to find the joint angles for a desired configuration (inverse kinematics). Since the inverse kinematics problem is of special importance to an animator wishing to set a figure to a posture satisfying a set of positioning constraints, researchers have proposed several different approaches. However, when we try to follow these approaches in an interactive animation system where the object on which to operate is as highly articulated as a realistic human figure, they fail in either generality or performance. So, we approach this problem through nonlinear programming techniques. It has been successfully used since 1988 in the spatial constraint system within Jack, a human figure simulation system developed at the University of Pennsylvania, and proves to be satisfactorily efficient, controllable, and robust. A spatial constraint in our system involves two parts: one constraint on the figure, the end-effector, and one on the spatial environment, the goal. These two parts are dealt with separately, so that we can achieve a neat modular implementation. Constraints can be added one at a time with appropriate weights designating the importance of this constraint relative to the others and are always solved as a group. If physical limits prevent satisfaction of all the constraints, the system stops with the (possibly local) optimal solution for the given weights. Also, the rigidity of each joint angle can be controlled, which is useful for redundant degrees of freedom.

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Inverse kinematics positioning using nonlinear programming for highly articulated figures

Although the off-road mobility characteristics of wheeled or tracked vehicles are generally recognized as being inferior to those of man and cursorial animals, the complexity of the joint-coordination control problem has thus far frustrated attempts to achieve improved vehicular terrain adaptability through the application of legged locomotion concepts. Nevertheless, the evident superiority of biological systems in this regard has motivated a number of theoretical studies over the past decade which have now reached a state of maturity sufficient to permit the construction of experimental computer-controlled adaptive walking machines. At least two such vehicles are known to have recently demonstrated legged locomotion over smooth hard-surfaced terrain. This paper is concerned with an extension of the present theory of limb coordination for such machines to the case in which the terrain includes regions not suitable for weight-bearing and which must consequently be avoided by the control computer in deciding when and where to successively place the feet of the vehicle. The paper includes a complete problem formalization, a heuristic algorithm for solution of the problem thus posed, and a preliminary evaluation of the proposed algorithm in terms of a computer simulation study.

Adaptive Locomition of a Multilegged Robot over Rough Terrain

Analytic and numerical computations used in robotics research provide tools for automated computer animation of the human figure.

Badler

Papers

Techniques for Generating the Goal-Directed Motion of Articulated Structures