Mechanical construction and computer architecture of the four-legged walking machine BISAM

Berns, K.; Ilg, Winfried; Deck, M.; Albiez, Jan; Dillmann, Rüdiger

doi:10.1109/3516.752082

Cited by 72 publications

(25 citation statements)

References 15 publications

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“…Method [c] is based on the biological knowledge that rhythmic motion in animals is mainly generated by neural circuits called CPG, whose activity is modulated by sensory inputs (Grillner 1981;Rossignol 1996;Orlovsky et al 1999). The CPG-based method was used to generate dynamic walking in simulation (Taga et al 1991;Taga 1995;Ijspeert 2001;Tomita and Yano 2003;Righetti and Ijspeert 2008) and real robots (Kimura et al 1999(Kimura et al , 2007Kimura and Fukuoka 2004;Berns et al 1999;Tsujita et al 2001;Fukuoka et al 2003;Aoi and Tsuchiya 2005;Buchli and Ijspeert 2008;Ijspeert et al 2007). The stability of this method has also been analyzed mathematically (Aoi and Tsuchiya 2006).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Integration of posture and rhythmic motion controls in quadrupedal dynamic walking using phase modulations based on leg loading/unloading

2010

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In this paper, we intend to show the basis of a general legged locomotion controller with the ability to integrate both posture and rhythmic motion controls and shift continuously from one control method to the other according to the walking speed. The rhythmic motion of each leg in the sagittal plane is generated by a single leg controller which controls the swing-to-stance and stanceto-swing phase transitions using respectively leg loading and unloading information. Since rolling motion induced by inverted pendulum motion during the two-legged stance phases results in the transfer of the load between the contralateral legs, leg loading/unloading involves posture information in the frontal plane. As a result of the phase modulations based on leg loading/unloading, rhythmic motion of each leg is achieved and inter-leg coordination (resulting in a gait) emerges, even without explicit coordination amongst the leg controllers, allowing to realize dynamic walking in the low-to medium-speed range. We show that the proposed method has resistance C. Maufroy ( ) ability against lateral perturbations to some extent, but that an additional ascending coordination mechanism between ipsilateral legs is necessary to withstand perturbations decreasing the rolling motion amplitude. Even without stepping reflex using vestibular information, our control system, relying on phase modulations based on leg loading/unloading and the ascending coordination mechanism between ipsilateral legs, enables low speed dynamic walking on uneven terrain with long cyclic period, which was not realized in our former studies. Details of trajectory generation, movies of simulations and movies of preliminary experiments using a real robot are available at: http://robotics.mech.kit.ac.jp/kotetsu/.

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Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Integration of posture and rhythmic motion controls in quadrupedal dynamic walking using phase modulations based on leg loading/unloading

2010

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“…Most previous models of the walking machine were designed to have a trunk without a backbone joint [33], [65], [79], [80], [126], [127], [151]. However, out of these examples, some of them gain the benefits of having different configurations which promote stability and flexibility of locomotion while maintaining animal characteristics [22], [26], [139], [169], [176].…”

Section: Walking Machine Platformsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Neural Preprocessing and Control of Reactive Walking Machines

Manoonpong¹

2007

Cognitive Technologies

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Research in the domain of biologically inspired walking machines has focused for the most part on the mechanical designs and locomotion control. Although some of this research has been concentrated on the generation of a reactive behavior of walking machines, it has been restricted only to a few of such reactive behaviors. However, from this research, there are only few examples where different behaviors have been implemented in one machine at the same time. In general, these walking machines were solely designed for pure locomotion, i.e. without sensing environmental stimuli.Therefore, in this thesis, biologically inspired walking machines with different reactive behaviors are presented. Inspired by obstacle avoidance and escape behavior of scorpions and cockroaches, such behavior is implemented in the walking machines as a negative tropism. On the other hand, a sound induced behavior called "sound tropism", in analogy to the prey capture behavior of spiders, is employed as a model of a positive tropism. The biological sensing systems which those animals use to trigger the described behaviors are investigated so that they can be reproduced in the abstract form with respect to their principle functionalities. In addition, the morphologies of a salamander and a cockroach which are designed for efficient locomotion are also taken into account for the leg and trunk designs of the four-and six-legged walking machines, respectively. Different behavior controls for generating the biologically inspired reactive behaviors are developed on the basis of a modular neural structure. Each behavior control consists of a neural preprocessing module and a neural control module. Preprocessing is for sensory signals while the neural control generates basic locomotion and changes the appropriate motions, e.g. turning left, right or walking backward, with respect to sensory signals. Neural preprocessing and control are formed by realizing discrete-time dynamical properties of recurrent neural networks. Parts of the networks are generated iii iv Abstract and optimized by using an evolutionary algorithm. Utilizing the modular neural structure, the coupling of the neural control module with different neural preprocessing modules leads to the desired behavior controllers, e.g. obstacle avoidance and sound tropism. Furthermore, these behavior controllers are then fused by using a sensor fusion technique consisting of lookup table and time scheduling methods to obtain an effective behavior fusion controller, whereby different neural preprocessing modules have to cooperate.Eventually, all of these reactive behavior controllers together with the physical sensor systems are implemented on the physical walking machines to be tested in a real world environment. The fully equipped walking machines can be seen as artificial perception-action systems. As a result, the walking machine(s) is able to respond to environmental stimuli, e.g. wandering around, sound tropism (positive tropism), avoiding obstacles and even escaping from corners a...

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“…Over the last few years, several methods were successfully applied to control the four-legged walking machine BISAM (Berns et al 1998). These include the usage of coupled neurooscillators for gait generation (Ilg et al 1998a), learning leg trajectories and the application of radial basis function neural networks and reinforcement learning methods for posture control while trotting (Ilg & Scholl 1998b;Albiez et al 2001).…”

Section: Controlmentioning

confidence: 99%

Biologically inspired walking machines: design, control and perception

Dillmann

Albiez

Gaßmann

et al. 2006

Phil. Trans. R. Soc. A.

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This article presents a set of methods used to support the design and control of biologically inspired walking machines. Starting with a description of the general system design idea, an example for the design of the mechanical construction, a computer supported design procedure for the control architecture and the description of a threedimensional world model to be used as knowledge base is given. The focus of this paper is on the engineering and integration process and the interrelation between the different phases of the design process.

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Mechanical construction and computer architecture of the four-legged walking machine BISAM

Cited by 72 publications

References 15 publications

Integration of posture and rhythmic motion controls in quadrupedal dynamic walking using phase modulations based on leg loading/unloading

Integration of posture and rhythmic motion controls in quadrupedal dynamic walking using phase modulations based on leg loading/unloading

Neural Preprocessing and Control of Reactive Walking Machines

Biologically inspired walking machines: design, control and perception

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