Interaction-Aware Whole-Body Control for Compliant Object Transport

Researchers developed a bio-inspired whole-body control system (IO-WBC) for humanoid robots that enables stable object transport in unstructured environments. The system separates upper-body interaction control from lower-body balance control and uses reinforcement learning to handle heavy loads and disturbances.

• →IO-WBC functions as an artificial cerebellum that translates high-level commands into stable whole-body robot behavior during contact tasks.
• →The system structurally separates upper-body interaction execution from lower-body support control for better balance maintenance.
• →A reinforcement learning policy governs body responses under heavy-load interactions and external disturbances.
• →The policy is trained in simulation with randomized payload parameters and deployed via teacher-student distillation.
• →Extensive experiments show the system maintains stable behavior even when precise velocity tracking becomes impossible.