Cockroaches use diverse strategies to self-right on the ground

Li, Chen; Wöhrl, Toni; Lam, Han; Full, Robert J.

doi:10.1242/jeb.186080

Cited by 25 publications

(120 citation statements)

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“…Similar to the animal (Li et al, 2019) and physical robot (Othayoth et al, 2017), the simulation robot's self-righting often required multiple wing opening attempts ( figure 4(b); supplementary video S2).…”

Section: Multiple Attempts To Self-right From Metastable Statementioning

confidence: 99%

“…These motions induce kinetic energy fluctuation to perturb the body to roll, which overcomes a smaller potential energy barrier (Othayoth et al, 2017). Thus, when the animal does eventually self-right, often after multiple wing opening attempts, it almost always rolls to one side (Li et al, 2019).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…For example, the periods of leg and wing oscillations are highly variable, with a coefficient of variation (standard deviation divided by mean) of Cv = 25% for leg and Cv = 36% for wing ( figure 1(c, d)). In addition, the animal appears to randomly flex and twist its abdomen and scrape or hit its flailing legs against the ground by chance (Li et al, 2019). All these large random motions are absent during walking and running.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…simultaneously) and each hind leg. We analyzed the videos of three discoid cockroaches self-righting from (Li et al, 2019), with three trials for each individual. For each trial, we recorded the periods of all the oscillation cycles of both wings and each hind leg (figure 1(c)).…”

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confidence: 99%

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Randomness in appendage coordination facilitates strenuous ground self-righting

Xuan

2020

Bioinspir. Biomim.

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Randomness is common in biological and artificial systems, resulting either from stochasticity of the environment or noise in organisms or devices themselves. In locomotor control, randomness is typically considered a nuisance. For example, during dynamic walking, randomness in stochastic terrain leads to metastable dynamics, which must be mitigated to stabilize the system around limit cycles. Here, we studied whether randomness in motion is beneficial for strenuous locomotor tasks. Our study used robotic simulation modeling of strenuous, leg-assisted, winged ground self-righting observed in cockroaches, in which unusually large randomness in wing and leg motions is present. We developed a simplified simulation robot capable of generating similar self-righting behavior and varied the randomness level in wing-leg coordination. During each wing opening attempt, the more randomness added to the time delay between wing opening and leg swinging, the more likely it was for the naive robot (which did not know what coordination is best) to self-right within a finite time. Wing-leg coordination, measured by the phase between wing and leg oscillations, had a crucial impact on self-righting outcome. Without randomness, periodic wing and leg oscillations often limited the system to visit a few bad phases, leading to failure to escape from the metastable state. With randomness, the system explored phases thoroughly and had a better chance of encountering good phases to self-right. Our study complements previous work by demonstrating that randomness helps destabilize locomotor systems from being trapped in undesired metastable states, a situation common in strenuous locomotion.

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Section: Multiple Attempts To Self-right From Metastable Statementioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

mentioning

confidence: 99%

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Randomness in appendage coordination facilitates strenuous ground self-righting

Xuan

2020

Bioinspir. Biomim.

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“…Few robots have used multiple appendages together to self-right [9]. By contrast, some animals have evolved more complex strategies that combine different body parts to self-right dynamically (for a review, see [10]). This is especially the case when selfrighting is strenuous.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Coordinated Appendages Accumulate More Energy to Self-Right on the Ground

Xuan

2020

IEEE Robot. Autom. Lett.

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Animals and robots must right themselves after flipping over on the ground. The discoid cockroach pushes its wings against the ground in an attempt to dynamically self-right by a somersault. However, because this maneuver is strenuous, the animal often fails to overcome the potential energy barrier and makes continual attempts. In this process, the animal flails its legs, whose lateral perturbation eventually leads it to roll to the side to self-right. Our previous work developed a cockroachinspired robot capable of leg-assisted, winged self-righting, and a robot simulation study revealed that the outcome of this strategy depends sensitively on wing-leg coordination (measured by the phase between their motions). Here, we further elucidate why this is the case by developing a template to model the complex hybrid dynamics resulting from discontinuous contact and actuation. We used the template to calculate the potential energy barrier that the body must overcome to self-right, mechanical energy contribution by wing pushing and leg flailing, and mechanical energy dissipation due to wing-ground collision. The template revealed that wing-leg coordination (phase) strongly affects self-righting outcome by changing mechanical energy budget. Well-coordinated appendage motions (good phase) accumulate more mechanical energy than poorlycoordinated motions (bad phase), thereby better overcoming the potential energy barrier to self-right more successfully. Finally, we demonstrated practical use of the template for predicting a new control strategy to further increase self-righting performance and informing robot design.

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The Need for and Feasibility of Alternative Ground Robots to Traverse Sandy and Rocky Extraterrestrial Terrain

Lewis

2022

Advanced Intelligent Systems

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Robotic spacecraft have vastly increased our ability to explore extraterrestrial surfaces. [1][2][3][4][5][6] Mobile robots have enabled exploration beyond a static landing site and allowed discovery-driven investigations on both the Moon and Mars. They have helped us understand the geologic history and surface environments of both bodies, conducting scientific campaigns analogous in many ways to that of a terrestrial field geologist.Since the first deployments on the Moon nearly half a century ago, mobile planetary exploration robots have progressively increased in their capabilities and enabled us to access a range of scientific targets on extraterrestrial surfaces. [2][3][4][5] To date, all of the successfully landed lunar and Martian mobile exploration robots, as well as the majority of those being developed, have adopted a conventional wheeled rover platform with a variety of architectures. [5,7] This is not surprising because one of the highest priority considerations for space applications is to maximize mechanical reliability, where wheeled platforms have excelled. [2,3,7,8] These missions have been hugely successful, often exceeding mission design lifetime and traverse distance. The 6-wheel Mars Exploration Rover Opportunity currently holds the planetary rover distance record, driving over 45 km across Meridiani Planum. [9] Similarly, the Soviet Union's 8-wheel Lunokhod 2 rover traversed 39 km across the surface of the Moon in 1973. [10] The recent 6-wheel Chinese Yutu and Yutu-2 lunar rovers have travelled hundreds of meters on the surface of the Moon. [11] Although these rovers have had an impressive track record exploring both the Moon and Mars, their missions have revealed significant limitations faced by wheel-based mobility systems, which hinder scientific exploration. For example, the Spirit Mars Exploration Rover ultimately reached the end of its mission due to a low power state after becoming embedded in a patch of loose soil at a location known as "Troy." The ferric sulfate dominated soil at this site had very low cohesion, thus being mechanically weak, and extended to a depth comparable to the wheel radius. [12] Unfortunately, this deposit was hidden beneath a weakly indurated soil crust, rendering the hazard hidden until the rover was already embedded. [9] The challenge of extricating Spirit was made more difficult due to the failure of one of its six wheels earlier in the mission, requiring modified driving strategies. [12] The Opportunity rover had similar challenges navigating ubiquitous large aeolian ripples in Meridiani Planum. In particular, it was stuck for an extended time embedded in the loose sand of the "Purgatory" ripple [13] (Figure 1A).More recently, the Curiosity Mars rover has incurred significant wheel damage along its traverse due to angular rocks protruding from the surface, which punctured the thin aluminum

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Cockroaches use diverse strategies to self-right on the ground

Cited by 25 publications

References 46 publications

Randomness in appendage coordination facilitates strenuous ground self-righting

Randomness in appendage coordination facilitates strenuous ground self-righting

Coordinated Appendages Accumulate More Energy to Self-Right on the Ground

The Need for and Feasibility of Alternative Ground Robots to Traverse Sandy and Rocky Extraterrestrial Terrain

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