Spatiotemporal pattern of periodic rhythms in delayed Van der Pol oscillators for the CPG-based locomotion of snake-like robot

Abstract

This is the further research on the delayed half-center oscillator (DHCO) neural system presented in our previous paper (Song and Xu in Nonlinear Dyn 108:2595–2609, 2022. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11071-022-07222-y). The DHCO is used to construct a CPG (central pattern generator) neural system to control locomotion of a snake-like robot with pitch-yaw connecting configuration. To this end, we firstly give an improved model of the VDP (Van der Pol) oscillator. Employing mutually coupled delay, a pair of VDP oscillator is connected to produce an half-center oscillator (HCO) module with time delay that is called as a DHCO (delayed HCO) model. Based on the analysis of the Hopf bifurcation, periodic rhythm and their spatiotemporal patterns of the DHCO are illustrated in the different regions of parameters. The DHCO presents periodic rhythms with synchronous and anti-synchronous patterns, which is to control joint actuators combined in snake-like robot with pitch-yaw connecting configuration. To realize a backward propulsive wave to promote snake-like robotic locomotion, based on the DHCOs, we construct a chain type of the CPG neural system combined with a new unidirectional delay in which phase difference can be regulated. Numerical simulations are illustrated that the CPG neural system can control snake-like robot to move with serpentine, rectilinear, and side-winding patterns in the forward and backward directions. The results show that the snake-like robot can be controlled in expected locomotion patterns for a region but not a fixed value of the controlling parameters. Further, the corresponding regions of the parameters are obtained by using theoretical dynamical analysis but not a trial-and-error method. The snake-like robot gets smooth and stable gait transition with parameter changing.