Hi! I am Dario, a Senior Staff Research Scientist at Boston Dynamics, where I develop algorithms for motion planning, control, and reinforcement learning. I received my Ph.D. from the Robotic Systems Lab of ETH Zurich focusing on motion planning and control for multi-limbed walking robots. During my research, I developed algorithms that allow ANYmal, a torque-controlled quadrupedal robot, to walk, run, jump, and open doors.

Articulated Locomotion and Manipulation for ANYmal

We present a motion planning and control framework for ANYmal, a torque-controlled quadrupedal robot equipped with a six degrees of freedom robotic arm capable of performing dynamic locomotion while executing manipulation tasks. The online motion planning framework, together with a whole-body control based on a hierarchical optimization algorithm, enable the system to walk, trot and pace while executing tasks such as fixed-position end-effector control, reactive human-robot collaboration and torso posture optimization to increase the arm’s kinematic reachability. The torque controllability of the whole system enables the implementation of compliant behaviour, allowing a user to safely interact with the robot in a very natural way. We verify our framework on the real robot by performing tasks such as opening a door or carrying a payload together with a human.