Combining Reflexes and External Sensory Information in a Neuromusculoskeletal Model to Control a Quadruped Robot

Abstract

This article examines the importance of integrating locomotion and cognitive information for achieving dynamic locomotion from a viewpoint combining biology and ecological psychology. We present a mammalian neuromusculoskeletal model from external sensory information processing to muscle activation, which includes: 1) a visual-attention control mechanism for controlling attention to external inputs; 2) object recognition representing the primary motor cortex; 3) a motor control model that determines motor commands traveling down the corticospinal and reticulospinal tracts; 4) a central pattern generation model representing pattern generation in the spinal cord; and 5) a muscle reflex model representing the muscle model and its reflex mechanism. The proposed model is able to generate the locomotion of a quadruped robot in flat and natural terrain. The experiment also shows the importance of a postural reflex mechanism when experiencing a sudden obstacle. We show the reflex mechanism when a sudden obstacle is separately detected from both external (retina) and internal (touching afferent) sensory information. We present the biological rationale for supporting the proposed model. Finally, we discuss future contributions, trends, and the importance of the proposed research.

Robust and reusable self-organized locomotion of legged robots under adaptive physical and neural communications

“…First, the relative phase between the outputs of a CPG was a fixed value ≈ π/2 that defined the intralimb coordination between the hip and knee joints of a leg. In addition, the hip and knee joint movement amplitudes and offsets, which influence the step length and body posture (Wang et al, 2018;Sun et al, 2020;Saputra et al, 2022), were also predefined with fixed parameter values. These two points limited the adaptation of the intralimb coordination of the robot, thus hindering its ability to effectively handle complex terrains (e.g., slopes Sun et al, 2021a) and negotiate a high obstacle (Sun et al, 2018).…”

“…These two points limited the adaptation of the intralimb coordination of the robot, thus hindering its ability to effectively handle complex terrains (e.g., slopes Sun et al, 2021a) and negotiate a high obstacle (Sun et al, 2018). Biological studies have revealed that adaptive interlimb and intralimb coordination as well as posture control depends on the integration of CPGs, reflexes, and muscle mechanisms (Aoi et al, 2017;Saputra et al, 2022). Thus, in the future, we will integrate multiple reflexes (e.g., vestibular/posture reflexes Kimura et al, 2007 andspinal reflex Saputra et al, 2022) and muscle models (Xiong et al, 2015) to realize a more advanced adaptive intralimb coordination and study its integration with the proposed adaptive interlimb coordination.…”

Topological mapping based on perceiving-acting cycle in sharing cognitive environments for robot partners

“…In ecological psychology based on the concept of perceiving-acting cycle [25,26] related with the perception and action we explain multi-scopic cognitive understanding [8]. In the field of robotics, the concept of perceivingacting cycle has widely implemented for social robots [26], robot locomotion [27], teleoperated robots [28], intelligent control [29], and object grasping recognition [8]. The measurement or sensing is done at the lowest level by using sensors (Figure 2a).…”

Controlling a One-Legged Robot to Clear Obstacles by Combining the SLIP Model with Air Trajectory Planning

“…Legged robots are a research hotspot in the field of robotics and have achieved excellent performance in structural design and motion control [ 1 , 2 , 3 , 4 , 5 , 6 , 7 , 8 , 9 , 10 ]. The one-legged robot is a special kind of legged robot because it is the basis of legged robot research.…”