Embodied robots driven by self-organized environmental feedback

Abstract

Which kind of complex behavior may arise from self-organizing principles? We investigate this question for the case of snake-like robots composed of passively coupled segments, with every segment containing two wheels actuated separately by a single neuron. The robot is self organized both on the level of the individual wheels and with respect to inter-wheel coordination, which arises exclusively from the mechanical coupling of the individual wheels and segments. For the individual wheel, the generating principle proposed results in locomotive states that correspond to self-organized limit cycles of the sensorimotor loop. Our robot interacts with the environment by monitoring the state of its actuators, that is via propriosensation. External sensors are absent. In a structured environment the robot shows complex emergent behavior that includes pushing movable blocks around, reversing direction when hitting a wall and turning when climbing a slope. On flat grounds the robot wiggles in a snake-like manner, when moving at higher velocities. We also investigate the emergence of motor primitives, viz the route to locomotion, which is characterized by a series of local and global bifurcations in terms of dynamical system theory.

Learning and Animal Movement

“…A prominent theoretical example is cellular automata whereby a specific rule set, such as "the game of life, " gives rise to agent-like configurations that may travel, replicate, and combine. Selforganized robots (Box 3) can exhibit emergent behavior, such as autonomous direction reversal, which an external observer could mistakenly interpret as decision-making (Kubandt et al, 2019). Because self-organization is not purposeful, an agent solely based on self-organizational principles will not be able to improve, or to "learn" its score in a given task.…”

Potential applications and benefits of humanoids in the construction industry: a South African perspective

“…In addition to being difficult to access, some of these locations could be dangerous for human inspectors' safety and health. A hypermobile humanoid is needed (Kubandt et al ., 2019). The humanoid can fit through small openings, climb up and over tall vertical steps, travel inside and outside of horizontal, vertical or diagonal pipes such as electric conduits or water pipes, climb up and down stairs and pass across wide gaps.…”