Abstract
This article describes an extremely simple controller as a minimal example of decentralized motor coordination and gait generation. The control strategy is based on the stretch reflex in animals and requires no mutual communication or detailed body models. Despite such simplicity, each controller can sync itself and generate various resonant oscillation by only physical interaction through whole body dynamics. To evaluate this controller, we conduct some simulations with a linear spring–mass–damper system and a nonlinear legged robot model with multiple controllers. The former shows an adaptability to change in vibration frequency and the body parameter. In the latter, first we show a limitation of the proposed method due to the nonlinearity, and an alternative method is proposed. Finally, the simple controllers generate versatile gaits just by choosing a control parameter of “speeding up or down,” and the gait generation can be explained by the controllers–body integration based on resonant oscillation.
Highlights
Animals can adjust their motion to their environmental conditions
We propose an extremely simple controller based on reflexes and investigate the controllers–body integration based on resonant oscillation
This paper shows that the simple controller can automatically generate versatile motion patterns, as animals do
Summary
Animals can adjust their motion to their environmental conditions. As typically observed in their locomotive behavior, they synchronize multiple periodic motions of the limbs and the body to each other, and make them adapt to the external force from the ground. If the controller module is subject to an external force from the robot body and environment, the controller senses an internal force in the spring–damper, and it adjusts the natural length of the actuator part This control strategy is based on the stretch reflex in animals that functions to maintain a current muscle length when the muscle senses internal force. To model this reflex function the proposed controller maintains a current length of the linear actuator by delaying the oscillation speed according to the magnitude of the internal force in the actuator This controller syncs the multiple controllers and the whole body dynamics with the resonant modes by only physical interaction. The simple controllers generate versatile gaits just by choosing a control parameter of “speeding up or down.”
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