arXiv:2604.00611cs.RO2026-04

让机器人像动物一样利用身体弹性省力,大幅降低能耗。

Physical Imitation Learning: Distilling Control Policies into Passive Elasticity

论文配图:Physical Imitation Learning: Distilling Control Policies into Passive Elasticity
图 1 · 摘自论文原文
  • 将强化学习得来的控制策略拆分为主动与被动部分,被动部分交给弹性关节承担。
  • 平坦地形下可将95%机械功率转移至被动动力,粗糙地形仍能转移13%。
  • 适合想提升机器人能效的开发者,尤其适用于多足机器人设计。

由于脑体协同进化,动物的内在身体动力学在节能运动中起关键作用,控制努力由主动肌肉和被动身体动力学共同分担,这一原理常被称为物理智能。相比之下,机器人通常设计得尽可能简单,但主动控制往往对抗其固有动力学,导致能效低下。我们提出物理模仿学习(PIL),一种新方法,使当前机器人控制更接近动物。PIL将强化学习(RL)获得的控制策略系统性地分解为主动与被动控制贡献,被动部分可直接交由被动并联弹性关节(PEJs)承担。因此,主动控制负担显著减轻,整体能耗降低。此外,策略可通过RL训练以利用PEJ辅助,生成更易被PEJs复现的步态,实现主动与被动控制组件的协同设计,使更多驱动任务由PEJs完成。我们在模拟四足机器人上验证了该方法的有效性,结果表明:在平坦地形上可将高达95%的机械功率转移至被动动力学,在粗糙地形上仍可达13%。PIL为此类任务特化的物理智能提供了一种可推广的解决方案,适用于多种基于关节的机器人形态。

原文摘要 · Abstract (English)

Due to brain-body co-evolution, animals' intrinsic body dynamics play a crucial role in their energy-efficient locomotion. Specifically, the control effort is shared between active muscles and passive body dynamics--a principle often referred to as Physical Intelligence. As a result, the body dynamics are part of the solution. In contrast, robot bodies are typically designed to be as simple as possible, but the active control often fights the intrinsic body dynamics, resulting in low energy-efficiency. We introduce Physical Imitation Learning (PIL), a novel approach that brings current robotics control closer to animals. PIL takes learned control policies obtained with Reinforcement Learning (RL) and systematically splits them up into an active and passive control contribution. The passive part can be then directly offloaded to passive Parallel Elastic Joints (PEJs). As a result, the active control contribution is significantly reduced, lowering the overall energy consumption. Furthermore, the policy can be trained via RL to leverage the PEJ assistance by generating gaits that are more readily emulated by the PEJs. This enables co-design of the active and passive control components, shifting a greater share of actuation effort to the PEJs. Here we demonstrate the potential of this approach in simulated quadrupeds. Our results show that the proposed approach can offload up to 95% of mechanical power to passive body dynamics on flat terrain and 13% on rough terrain. PIL thereby provides a generalisable route to task-specific Physical Intelligence applicable to a wide range of joint-based robot morphologies.

物理智能能量效率弹性关节强化学习

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