Learning to stop: a unifying principle for legged locomotion in varying environments

Thuruthel, Thomas George; Picardi, Giacomo; Iida, Fumiya; Laschi, Cecilia

doi:10.1098/rsos.210223

Cited by 3 publications

(4 citation statements)

References 49 publications

(61 reference statements)

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“…Moreover, their integration for control purposes appears computationally demanding. On the other hand, researchers that followed a holistic modelling approach based on extensions of the spring loaded inverted pendulum (SLIP) template [69,[79][80][81], preferred to use lumped models for hydrodynamic contributions, and just account for a generic and uncertain parameter for drag, enough to predict the amount of energy dissipated during non-contact phases. The developers of CR200 [82] and SILVER2 [83] estimated the drag acting on their ULRs for a set of static poses using fluiddynamic simulation software.…”

Section: Hydrodynamic Effectsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…A comparison of crab locomotion in air and water revealed a novel gait characterised by backward directed pushes and great variability in leg patterns [94]. This gait was called underwater punting and its main features can be predicted by adapting the widely used single legged SLIP model either through reduced gravity or including the contributions of the underwater environment such as drag, lift, buoyancy and added mass [69,80,81,118]. ULRs featuring several DoFs can employ several types of gaits to adapt to different situations.…”

Section: Locomotionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…The clear complementarity presented in figure 6 (relative features AUVs-Crawlers) is a direct invitation to explore this logically straightforward but technically challenging research. Beside these technical elements related to field applications, underwater legged robotics also hold a great potential as a tool for scientific discoveries or investigation, as for example explaining the morphogenesis [151] or exploring fundamental and bioinspired control strategies [80].…”

Section: Research Opportunities In the Field Of Ulrsmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Underwater legged robotics: review and perspectives

et al. 2023

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Nowadays, there is a growing awareness on the social and economic importance of the ocean. In this context, being able to carry out a diverse range of operations underwater is of paramount importance for many industrial sectors as well as for marine science and to enforce restoration and mitigation actions. Underwater robots allowed us to venture deeper and for longer time into the remote and hostile marine environment. However, traditional design concepts such as propeller driven Remotely Operated Vehicles (ROVs), Autonomous Underwater Vehicles (AUVs), or tracked benthic crawlers, present intrinsic limitations, especially when a close interaction with the environment is required. An increasing number of researchers are proposing legged robots as a bioinspired alternative to traditional designs, capable of yielding versatile multi-terrain locomotion, high stability, and low environmental disturbance. In this work, we aim at presenting the new field of underwater legged robotics in an organic way, discussing the prototypes in the state-of-the-art and highlighting technological and scientific challenges for the future. First, we will briefly recap the latest developments in traditional underwater robotics from which several technological solutions can be adapted, and on which the benchmarking of this new field should be set. Second, we will the retrace the evolution of terrestrial legged robotics, pinpointing the main achievements of the field. Third, we will report a complete state of the art on Underwater Legged Robots (ULRs) focusing on the innovations with respect to the interaction with the environment, sensing and actuation, modelling and control, and autonomy and navigation. Finally, we will thoroughly discuss the reviewed literature by comparing traditional and legged underwater robots, highlighting interesting research opportunities, and presenting use case scenarios derived from marine science applications.

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Section: Hydrodynamic Effectsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Locomotionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Research Opportunities In the Field Of Ulrsmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Underwater legged robotics: review and perspectives

et al. 2023

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“…These characteristics are crucial to safely navigate complex unknown environments. They can also enable smooth transitions between locomotion modes when moving from one environment to another (e.g., aerial to arboreal or terrestrial to aquatic) ( George Thuruthel et al, 2021 ; Biewener et al, 2022 ; Miki et al, 2022 ).…”

Section: Future Trends In Bioinspired Robotics Benefit Nature Conserv...mentioning

confidence: 99%

Bioinspired robots can foster nature conservation

Chellapurath,

Khandelwal,

Schulz

2023

Front. Robot. AI

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We live in a time of unprecedented scientific and human progress while being increasingly aware of its negative impacts on our planet’s health. Aerial, terrestrial, and aquatic ecosystems have significantly declined putting us on course to a sixth mass extinction event. Nonetheless, the advances made in science, engineering, and technology have given us the opportunity to reverse some of our ecosystem damage and preserve them through conservation efforts around the world. However, current conservation efforts are primarily human led with assistance from conventional robotic systems which limit their scope and effectiveness, along with negatively impacting the surroundings. In this perspective, we present the field of bioinspired robotics to develop versatile agents for future conservation efforts that can operate in the natural environment while minimizing the disturbance/impact to its inhabitants and the environment’s natural state. We provide an operational and environmental framework that should be considered while developing bioinspired robots for conservation. These considerations go beyond addressing the challenges of human-led conservation efforts and leverage the advancements in the field of materials, intelligence, and energy harvesting, to make bioinspired robots move and sense like animals. In doing so, it makes bioinspired robots an attractive, non-invasive, sustainable, and effective conservation tool for exploration, data collection, intervention, and maintenance tasks. Finally, we discuss the development of bioinspired robots in the context of collaboration, practicality, and applicability that would ensure their further development and widespread use to protect and preserve our natural world.

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Exploration-based model learning with self-attention for risk-sensitive robot control

Kim,

Lee,

Hong

et al. 2023

npj Robot

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Model-based reinforcement learning for robot control offers the advantages of overcoming concerns on data collection and iterative processes for policy improvement in model-free methods. However, both methods use exploration strategy relying on heuristics that involve inherent randomness, which may cause instability or malfunction of the target system and render the system susceptible to external perturbations. In this paper, we propose an online model update algorithm that can be directly operated in real-world robot systems. The algorithm leverages a self-attention mechanism embedded in neural networks for the kinematics and the dynamics models of the target system. The approximated model involves redundant self-attention paths to the time-independent kinematics and dynamics models, allowing us to detect abnormalities by calculating the trace values of the self-attention matrices. This approach reduces the randomness during the exploration process and enables the detection and rejection of detected perturbations while updating the model. We validate the proposed method in simulation and with real-world robot systems in three application scenarios: path tracking of a soft robotic manipulator, kinesthetic teaching and behavior cloning of an industrial robotic arm, and gait generation of a legged robot. All of these demonstrations are achieved without the aid of simulation or prior knowledge of the models, which supports the proposed method’s universality for various robotics applications.

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Learning to stop: a unifying principle for legged locomotion in varying environments

Cited by 3 publications

References 49 publications

Underwater legged robotics: review and perspectives

Underwater legged robotics: review and perspectives

Bioinspired robots can foster nature conservation

Exploration-based model learning with self-attention for risk-sensitive robot control

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