Exploiting Dynamical Complexity in a Physical Tensegrity Robot to Achieve Locomotion

Khazanov, Mark; Humphreys, Ben; Keat, William; Rieffel, John

doi:10.7551/978-0-262-31709-2-ch144

Cited by 23 publications

(25 citation statements)

References 27 publications

(30 reference statements)

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“…The geometry is defined by six equal length composite struts which are connected to each other via 24 identical helical springs, with four springs emanating from each strut end. Our prior work Khazanov et al (2013) describes the design choices of the robot in more detail.…”

Section: A Robot Designed To Resonatementioning

confidence: 99%

“…An analysis of the complexity of the ensuing dynamics can be found in our earlier work Khazanov et al (2013).…”

Section: A Robot Designed To Resonatementioning

confidence: 99%

“…We could then manually switch between these three frequency sets in order to "steer" the robot around the arena (Khazanov et al, 2013). A video of this behavior can be found on our web page (http://cs.union.edu/˜rieffelj/videos.html)…”

Section: Hand Selected Gaitsmentioning

confidence: 99%

See 2 more Smart Citations

Evolution of Locomotion on a Physical Tensegrity Robot

Khazanov¹,

Jocque²,

Rieffel³

2014

Artificial Life 14: Proceedings of the Fourteenth International Conference on the Synthesis and Simulation of Living Systems

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Due to their high strength-to-weight ratio, robustness and deformability, tensegrity structures are an appealing platform for the emerging field of soft robotics, with applications ranging from search-and-rescue to field-deployable structures. Unfortunately, these properties also make tensegrities challenging to control through conventional means. In this paper we describe a novel means of vibration-based tensegrity actuation which allows for the manual control of a physical tensegrity robot in the plane as well as state-machine based target following. We demonstrate the evolution of effective gaits using only physical evaluations of the robot, and further demonstrate how a combination of the state-machine with the hill climber allows for the hands-off automation of the evolutionary process. We conclude with a description of how this can lead to a bootstrapping effect, with the potential to significantly accelerate and automate the physical evolution of our tensegrity robot.

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Section: A Robot Designed To Resonatementioning

confidence: 99%

“…An analysis of the complexity of the ensuing dynamics can be found in our earlier work Khazanov et al (2013).…”

Section: A Robot Designed To Resonatementioning

confidence: 99%

See 1 more Smart Citation

Evolution of Locomotion on a Physical Tensegrity Robot

Khazanov¹,

Jocque²,

Rieffel³

2014

Artificial Life 14: Proceedings of the Fourteenth International Conference on the Synthesis and Simulation of Living Systems

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“…While conventional approaches to tensegrity locomotion deal with dampening the dynamic complexity of the system, an emerging method of movement is actuation through vibration [3] [1]. Our approach exploits the dynamic movements of the tensegrity, vibrating the structure to produce locomotion.…”

Section: From Structure To Robotmentioning

confidence: 99%

Developing morphological computation in tensegrity robots for controllable actuation

Khazanov

Jocque

Rieffel

2014

Proceedings of the Companion Publication of the 2014 Annual Conference on Genetic and Evolutionary Computation

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Conventionally control can be achieved by attempting to simplify complex dynamics. The field of morphological computation explores how mechanical complexity can be advantageous. In this paper we demonstrate morphological computation in tensegrity robots. We present a novel approach to tensegrity actuation and explore the capabilities of our self-evolving system. Methods of finding desirable gaits through both hand selection and evolution are described and the effectiveness of the system is demonstrated by our robot's ability to pursue a moving target. We conclude with a discussion of a bootstrapped system with the potential of significantly reducing evolution time and need for user presence.

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“…Some related approaches utilize tensegrity as part of a larger, more complicated system, but not as the primary locomotion method [8]. Others have created designs that do not use direct cable actuation, as in the SUPER ball, but instead have more limited forms of locomotion through vibration [9][10]. Finally, the most similar designs to the SUPER ball have not been engineered to specific design requirements nor have the advanced sensing framework needed for controls testing [11].…”

Section: B Prior Work In Tensegrity Robotics Designmentioning

confidence: 99%

Design and evolution of a modular tensegrity robot platform

Bruce

Caluwaerts

İşçen

et al. 2014

2014 IEEE International Conference on Robotics and Automation (ICRA)

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Abstract-NASA Ames Research Center is developing a compliant modular tensegrity robotic platform for planetary exploration. In this paper we present the design and evolution of the platform's main hardware component, an untethered, robust tensegrity strut, with rich sensor feedback and cable actuation. Each strut is a complete robot, and multiple struts can be combined together to form a wide range of complex tensegrity robots. Our current goal for the tensegrity robotic platform is the development of SUPERball, a 6-strut icosahedron underactuated tensegrity robot aimed at dynamic locomotion for planetary exploration rovers and landers, but the aim is for the modular strut to enable a wide range of tensegrity morphologies.SUPERball is a second generation prototype, evolving from the tensegrity robot ReCTeR, which is also a modular, lightweight, highly compliant 6-strut tensegrity robot that was used to validate our physics based NASA Tensegrity Robot Toolkit (NTRT) simulator. Many hardware design parameters of the SUPERball were driven by locomotion results obtained in our validated simulator. These evolutionary explorations helped constrain motor torque and speed parameters, along with strut and string stress. As construction of the hardware has finalized, we have also used the same evolutionary framework to evolve controllers that respect the built hardware parameters.

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Exploiting Dynamical Complexity in a Physical Tensegrity Robot to Achieve Locomotion

Cited by 23 publications

References 27 publications

Evolution of Locomotion on a Physical Tensegrity Robot

Evolution of Locomotion on a Physical Tensegrity Robot

Developing morphological computation in tensegrity robots for controllable actuation

Design and evolution of a modular tensegrity robot platform

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