How Cockroaches Employ Wall-Following for Exploration

Daltorio, Kathryn A.; Mirletz, Brian T.; Sterenstein, Andrea; Cheng, Jui Chun; Watson, Adam; Kesavan, Malavika; Bender, John A.; Ritzmann, Roy E.; Quinn, Roger D.

doi:10.1007/978-3-319-09435-9_7

Cited by 5 publications

(3 citation statements)

References 14 publications

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“…For example, stick insects use their antennae to sense the terrain and use quasi-static, 'follow-the-leader' stepping to slowly walk on branches [41], climb over steps [11,42] and bridge over large gaps. Slow running [39,43] or walking [3,23,40,44] cockroaches use their antennae to sense obstacles in front and alter their kinematics to either climb over steps [3,22], tunnel under steps [23,45], approach and climb up pillars [44,46], or follow walls [39,43,47], depending on the location of the obstacle. Lizards frequently jump onto and over large bumps [48], and snakes either quasi-statically cantilever their body to reach across a smaller gap [19] or dynamically lunge to traverse a larger gap [19], presumably all using vision in the process.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Dynamic traversal of large gaps by insects and legged robots reveals a template

et al. 2018

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It is well known that animals can use neural and sensory feedback via vision, tactile sensing, and echolocation to negotiate obstacles. Similarly, most robots use deliberate or reactive planning to avoid obstacles, which relies on prior knowledge or high-fidelity sensing of the environment. However, during dynamic locomotion in complex, novel, 3D terrains, such as a forest floor and building rubble, sensing and planning suffer bandwidth limitation and large noise and are sometimes even impossible. Here, we study rapid locomotion over a large gap-a simple, ubiquitous obstacle-to begin to discover the general principles of the dynamic traversal of large 3D obstacles. We challenged the discoid cockroach and an open-loop six-legged robot to traverse a large gap of varying length. Both the animal and the robot could dynamically traverse a gap as large as one body length by bridging the gap with its head, but traversal probability decreased with gap length. Based on these observations, we developed a template that accurately captured body dynamics and quantitatively predicted traversal performance. Our template revealed that a high approach speed, initial body pitch, and initial body pitch angular velocity facilitated dynamic traversal, and successfully predicted a new strategy for using body pitch control that increased the robot's maximal traversal gap length by 50%. Our study established the first template of dynamic locomotion beyond planar surfaces, and is an important step in expanding terradynamics into complex 3D terrains.

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Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Dynamic traversal of large gaps by insects and legged robots reveals a template

et al. 2018

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“…The Predictive Feedback Control navigation works by utilizing the fact that the insect typically walked straight without any external stimulus. [48,49] The navigation algorithm monitors linear speed of the insect (v l , Figure 2e), then predicts and prevents immobility by prematurely accelerating it when v l decrease below a given threshold (Table S4, Supporting Information). Similarly, a small measured ω (i.e., the insect's angular speed, Figure 2e) would indicate that the insect might be blocked by an obstacle, and it would otherwise cause the insect to either stay immobile or If the monitored speeds fall below their thresholds (ω t , v t ) indicating that the insect is halted by environment interaction, the steering stimulus is immediately discontinued and an acceleration stimulus is released to direct the insect out of its current vicinity, thereby preventing a navigation failure.…”

Section: Enhanced Navigation Performance With Predictive Feedback Con...mentioning

confidence: 99%

Intelligent Insect–Computer Hybrid Robot: Installing Innate Obstacle Negotiation and Onboard Human Detection onto Cyborg Insect

Tran-Ngoc

Chong

et al. 2023

Advanced Intelligent Systems

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Developing small mobile robots for Urban Search and Rescue (USAR) is a major challenge due to constraints in size and power required to perform vital functions such as obstacle navigation, victim detection, and wireless communication. Drawing upon the idea that insects’ locomotion can be controlled, what if we further utilize the insects’ intrinsic ability to avoid obstacles? Herein, a cockroach hybrid robot (≈ 1.5 cm height, 5.7 cm length) that implements the abovementioned functions is developed. It is tested in an arena with randomly placed obstacles, and a motion capture system is used to track the insect's position among the untracked obstacles. A navigation algorithm that uses an inertial measurement unit (IMU) is developed to heuristically predict the insect's situation and stimulate the insect to escape nearby obstacles. The utilization of insect's intrinsic locomotor ability and low‐powered IMU reduces the onboard power load, allowing the addition of a human‐detecting function. An image classification model enables the use of an onboard low‐resolution infrared camera for human detection. Consequently, a single hybrid robot is established that includes locomotion control, autonomous navigation in obstructed areas, onboard human detection, and wireless communication, representing a significant step toward real USAR application.

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“…When the animal's body was more pitched up with its head higher and redirected upwards during collision, it might have been better able to locate the top of the bump with its antennae and further make kinematic adjustments to climb [1,2]. By contrast, when the animal's initial body pitch was low and its head deflected laterally, it might not have been able to do so and instead perceived the bump as a wall-like obstacle and continued to turn and follow the wall [54,55].…”

Section: The Role Of Sensory Feedback In Traversalmentioning

confidence: 99%

Body-terrain interaction affects large bump traversal of insects and legged robots

Gart¹,

Li²

2018

Bioinspir. Biomim.

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Small animals and robots must often rapidly traverse large bump-like obstacles when moving through complex 3D terrains, during which, in addition to leg-ground contact, their body inevitably comes into physical contact with the obstacles. However, we know little about the performance limits of large bump traversal and how body-terrain interaction affects traversal. To address these, we challenged the discoid cockroach and an open-loop six-legged robot to dynamically run into a large bump of varying height to discover the maximal traversal performance, and studied how locomotor modes and traversal performance are affected by body-terrain interaction. Remarkably, during rapid running, both the animal and the robot were capable of dynamically traversing a bump much higher than its hip height (up to 4 times the hip height for the animal and 3 times for the robot, respectively) at traversal speeds typical of running, with decreasing traversal probability with increasing bump height. A stability analysis using a novel locomotion energy landscape model explained why traversal was more likely when the animal or robot approached the bump with a low initial body yaw and a high initial body pitch, and why deflection was more likely otherwise. Inspired by these principles, we demonstrated a novel control strategy of active body pitching that increased the robot's maximal traversable bump height by 75%. Our study is a major step in establishing the framework of locomotion energy landscapes to understand locomotion in complex 3D terrains.

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How Cockroaches Employ Wall-Following for Exploration

Cited by 5 publications

References 14 publications

Dynamic traversal of large gaps by insects and legged robots reveals a template

Dynamic traversal of large gaps by insects and legged robots reveals a template

Intelligent Insect–Computer Hybrid Robot: Installing Innate Obstacle Negotiation and Onboard Human Detection onto Cyborg Insect

Body-terrain interaction affects large bump traversal of insects and legged robots

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