• robotics
• abel
• humanoid robotics
• ros
• control systems
• mechatronics
• python
• social robotics

The following thesis discusses the design and implementation of a bio-inspired control
system for the humanoid robot Abel. The fundamental goal was to create a software control
structure based on ROS (Robot Operating System) and achieve a human-like movement for
the arms and the neck. In order will be discussed the general aspects of humanoid robotics,
the Abel hardware platform based on Dynamixel servos, and finally the software for motion
control written in Python. The focus has been on creating a layered architecture to allow abstraction from the low level of dynamixel hardware to the highest level of body gestures for the realization of an extensible gestural dictionary.

Concerning materials and methods, these have been provided by the E.Piaggio research
center through the use of the entire Abel robot and open source software such as ROS, Ubuntu and Python for the development of the software architecture.

The results obtained were discussed and schematized by means of graphs and the configurations of the parameters that allowed the realization of realistic gestures and movements. A chapter was dedicated to those techniques and settings that allowed to make Abel’s movement more human-like, with some additional details on how to achieve compliant interaction.

Finally, in the conclusions, some areas of use are shown, such as in autism research, with
possible experimental protocols for the integration of Abel.