A dung beetle-inspired robotic model and its distributed sensor-driven control for walking and ball rolling

Thor, Mathias; Strøm-Hansen, T.; Larsen, Leon Bonde; Kovalev, A. S.; Gorb, Stanislav N.; Baird, Emily; Manoonpong, Poramate

doi:10.1007/s10015-018-0456-8

Cited by 8 publications

(4 citation statements)

References 17 publications

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“…One way effective friction can be reduced is if the object can be rolled. The dung beetle robot can use two front legs to walk backward on different terrains while using the middle and hind legs to stabilize and manipulate a large ball (Leung et al, 2018;Thor et al, 2018;Billeschou et al, 2020). Although only validated in simulation, an interesting example is the dual MPC-based approach described in Yang C. et al (2020b), where a quadruped robot stands on top of a large ball and rolls it to transport itself and the ball.…”

Section: Figurementioning

confidence: 99%

Legged robots for object manipulation: A review

et al. 2023

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Legged robots can have a unique role in manipulating objects in dynamic, human-centric, or otherwise inaccessible environments. Although most legged robotics research to date typically focuses on traversing these challenging environments, many legged platform demonstrations have also included “moving an object” as a way of doing tangible work. Legged robots can be designed to manipulate a particular type of object (e.g., a cardboard box, a soccer ball, or a larger piece of furniture), by themselves or collaboratively. The objective of this review is to collect and learn from these examples, to both organize the work done so far in the community and highlight interesting open avenues for future work. This review categorizes existing works into four main manipulation methods: object interactions without grasping, manipulation with walking legs, dedicated non-locomotive arms, and legged teams. Each method has different design and autonomy features, which are illustrated by available examples in the literature. Based on a few simplifying assumptions, we further provide quantitative comparisons for the range of possible relative sizes of the manipulated object with respect to the robot. Taken together, these examples suggest new directions for research in legged robot manipulation, such as multifunctional limbs, terrain modeling, or learning-based control, to support a number of new deployments in challenging indoor/outdoor scenarios in warehouses/construction sites, preserved natural areas, and especially for home robotics.

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Section: Figurementioning

confidence: 99%

Legged robots for object manipulation: A review

et al. 2023

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“…In return, robotic systems can provide insights into the regulation and temporal resolution of attachments, which can strengthen experimental results. Furthermore, the characterization of attachment solutions in nature can support the development of bioinspired gripping devices [289][290][291][292][293]. The transfer to technical applications in this context would benefit from the isolation of the collective features of different systems, rather than from emulating a single feature in detail.…”

Section: Significance For Biomimetic Applicationsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Physical constraints lead to parallel evolution of micro- and nanostructures of animal adhesive pads: a review

Büscher¹,

Gorb²

2021

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol.

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Adhesive pads are functional systems with specific micro- and nanostructures which evolved as a response to specific environmental conditions and therefore exhibit convergent traits. The functional constraints that shape systems for the attachment to a surface are general requirements. Different strategies to solve similar problems often follow similar physical principles, hence, the morphology of attachment devices is affected by physical constraints. This resulted in two main types of attachment devices in animals: hairy and smooth. They differ in morphology and ultrastructure but achieve mechanical adaptation to substrates with different roughness and maximise the actual contact area with them. Species-specific environmental surface conditions resulted in different solutions for the specific ecological surroundings of different animals. As the conditions are similar in discrete environments unrelated to the group of animals, the micro- and nanostructural adaptations of the attachment systems of different animal groups reveal similar mechanisms. Consequently, similar attachment organs evolved in a convergent manner and different attachment solutions can occur within closely related lineages. In this review, we present a summary of the literature on structural and functional principles of attachment pads with a special focus on insects, describe micro- and nanostructures, surface patterns, origin of different pads and their evolution, discuss the material properties (elasticity, viscoelasticity, adhesion, friction) and basic physical forces contributing to adhesion, show the influence of different factors, such as substrate roughness and pad stiffness, on contact forces, and review the chemical composition of pad fluids, which is an important component of an adhesive function. Attachment systems are omnipresent in animals. We show parallel evolution of attachment structures on micro- and nanoscales at different phylogenetic levels, focus on insects as the largest animal group on earth, and subsequently zoom into the attachment pads of the stick and leaf insects (Phasmatodea) to explore convergent evolution of attachment pads at even smaller scales. Since convergent events might be potentially interesting for engineers as a kind of optimal solution by nature, the biomimetic implications of the discussed results are briefly presented.

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“…In addition to the CPG-based control described above, reflex-based control (pure reflexes), relying on sensory feedback, has also been widely used for robot locomotion generation with adaptability to different situations [29,59,118,[193][194][195]. The most wellknown reflex-based control is the Walknet control inspired by stick insect locomotion (see above and Figure 6a, middle inset).…”

Section: Bio-inspired Controlmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…The most recent version of Walknet (neuroWalknet controller) can be seen at [143]. Walknet control has also been modified (called Rollnet) for a ball rolling gait of a dung beetle-like robot [195]. The gait combines backward walking of the front legs and ball manipulation by the middle and hind legs.…”

Section: Bio-inspired Controlmentioning

confidence: 99%

Insect-Inspired Robots: Bridging Biological and Artificial Systems

Manoonpong

Patané

Xiong

et al. 2021

Sensors

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This review article aims to address common research questions in hexapod robotics. How can we build intelligent autonomous hexapod robots that can exploit their biomechanics, morphology, and computational systems, to achieve autonomy, adaptability, and energy efficiency comparable to small living creatures, such as insects? Are insects good models for building such intelligent hexapod robots because they are the only animals with six legs? This review article is divided into three main sections to address these questions, as well as to assist roboticists in identifying relevant and future directions in the field of hexapod robotics over the next decade. After an introduction in section (1), the sections will respectively cover the following three key areas: (2) biomechanics focused on the design of smart legs; (3) locomotion control; and (4) high-level cognition control. These interconnected and interdependent areas are all crucial to improving the level of performance of hexapod robotics in terms of energy efficiency, terrain adaptability, autonomy, and operational range. We will also discuss how the next generation of bioroboticists will be able to transfer knowledge from biology to robotics and vice versa.

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A dung beetle-inspired robotic model and its distributed sensor-driven control for walking and ball rolling

Cited by 8 publications

References 17 publications

Legged robots for object manipulation: A review

Legged robots for object manipulation: A review

Physical constraints lead to parallel evolution of micro- and nanostructures of animal adhesive pads: a review

Insect-Inspired Robots: Bridging Biological and Artificial Systems

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