Learning Quiet Walking for a Small Home Robot

Fuente: arXiv
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Auteurs principaux: Watanabe, Ryo, Miki, Takahiro, Shi, Fan, Kadokawa, Yuki, Bjelonic, Filip, Kawaharazuka, Kento, Cramariuc, Andrei, Hutter, Marco
Format: Preprint
Publié: 2025
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author Watanabe, Ryo
Miki, Takahiro
Shi, Fan
Kadokawa, Yuki
Bjelonic, Filip
Kawaharazuka, Kento
Cramariuc, Andrei
Hutter, Marco
author_facet Watanabe, Ryo
Miki, Takahiro
Shi, Fan
Kadokawa, Yuki
Bjelonic, Filip
Kawaharazuka, Kento
Cramariuc, Andrei
Hutter, Marco
contents As home robotics gains traction, robots are increasingly integrated into households, offering companionship and assistance. Quadruped robots, particularly those resembling dogs, have emerged as popular alternatives for traditional pets. However, user feedback highlights concerns about the noise these robots generate during walking at home, particularly the loud footstep sound. To address this issue, we propose a sim-to-real based reinforcement learning (RL) approach to minimize the foot contact velocity highly related to the footstep sound. Our framework incorporates three key elements: learning varying PD gains to actively dampen and stiffen each joint, utilizing foot contact sensors, and employing curriculum learning to gradually enforce penalties on foot contact velocity. Experiments demonstrate that our learned policy achieves superior quietness compared to a RL baseline and the carefully handcrafted Sony commercial controllers. Furthermore, the trade-off between robustness and quietness is shown. This research contributes to developing quieter and more user-friendly robotic companions in home environments.
format Preprint
id arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2502_10983
institution arXiv
publishDate 2025
record_format arxiv
spellingShingle Learning Quiet Walking for a Small Home Robot
Watanabe, Ryo
Miki, Takahiro
Shi, Fan
Kadokawa, Yuki
Bjelonic, Filip
Kawaharazuka, Kento
Cramariuc, Andrei
Hutter, Marco
Robotics
As home robotics gains traction, robots are increasingly integrated into households, offering companionship and assistance. Quadruped robots, particularly those resembling dogs, have emerged as popular alternatives for traditional pets. However, user feedback highlights concerns about the noise these robots generate during walking at home, particularly the loud footstep sound. To address this issue, we propose a sim-to-real based reinforcement learning (RL) approach to minimize the foot contact velocity highly related to the footstep sound. Our framework incorporates three key elements: learning varying PD gains to actively dampen and stiffen each joint, utilizing foot contact sensors, and employing curriculum learning to gradually enforce penalties on foot contact velocity. Experiments demonstrate that our learned policy achieves superior quietness compared to a RL baseline and the carefully handcrafted Sony commercial controllers. Furthermore, the trade-off between robustness and quietness is shown. This research contributes to developing quieter and more user-friendly robotic companions in home environments.
title Learning Quiet Walking for a Small Home Robot
topic Robotics
url https://arxiv.org/abs/2502.10983