Simulation and Robotics Studies of Salamander Locomotion: Applying Neurobiological Principles to the Control of Locomotion in Robots

Ijspeert, Auke Jan; Crespi, Alessandro; Cabelguen, Jean-Marie

doi:10.1385/ni:3:3:171

Cited by 159 publications

(103 citation statements)

References 54 publications

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“…Illustration See illustrations for the isochronous oscillator and ACPO which are both harmonic oscillators. References The Hopf oscillator (Hopf, 1942) and the oscillators in (Ijspeert, Crespi, & Cabelguen, 2005;Buchli & Ijspeert, 2004a) are harmonic oscillators. Piecewise Linear Systems -A system constructed of a set of linear systems of the same order, of which always one is active depending on conditions on the state variables.…”

Section: Amplitude Controlled Phase Oscillators (Acpo)mentioning

confidence: 99%

“…In this category we can count all the exploitation of synchronization, phase resetting etc. (such as in (Ermentrout & Kopell, 1994;Williamson, 1998;Ijspeert et al, 2005;Matsuoka, 1985Matsuoka, , 1987Schöner et al, 1990;Schöner & Kelso, 1988;Taga, 1994Taga, , 1995bTaga, , 1995aBuchli & Ijspeert, 2004a;22, 2003;Schöner & Santos, 2001;Santos, 2003Santos, , 2004Collins & Richmond, 1994;Endo et al, 2005)). As an example, in case of phase locking the oscillator is matching its frequency to the frequency of the input.…”

Section: Reactive: Temporary Entrainment and Shape Changesmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Engineering entrainment and adaptation in limit cycle systems

2006

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Periodic behavior is key to life, and is observed in multiple instances and at multiple time scales in our metabolism, our natural environment, and our engineered environment. A natural way of modelling or generating periodic behavior is done by using oscillators, i.e. dynamical systems that exhibit limit cycle behavior. While there is extensive literature on methods to analyze such dynamical systems, much less work has been done on methods to synthesize an oscillator to exhibit some specific desired characteristics. The goal of this article is two-fold: (1) to provide a framework for characterizing and designing oscillators, and (2) to review how classes of well known oscillators can be understood and related to this framework.The basis of the framework is to characterize oscillators in terms of their fundamental temporal and spatial behavior, and in terms of properties that these two behaviors can be designed to exhibit. This focus on fundamental properties is important because it allows us to systematically compare a large variety of oscillators which might at first sight appear very different from each other. We identify several specifications that are useful for design, such as frequency-locking behavior, phaselocking behavior, and specific output signal shape. We also identify two classes of design methods by which these specifications can be met, namely off-line methods and on-line methods. By relating these specifications to our framework and by presenting several examples of how oscillators have been designed in the literature, this article provides a useful methodology and toolbox for designing oscillators for a wide range of purposes. In particular the focus on synthesis of limit cycle dynamical systems should be useful both for engineering and for computational modelling of physical or biological phenomena.

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Section: Amplitude Controlled Phase Oscillators (Acpo)mentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Reactive: Temporary Entrainment and Shape Changesmentioning

confidence: 99%

Engineering entrainment and adaptation in limit cycle systems

2006

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“…Most of these robots are controlled using traditional control methods that combine (algorithmic) sine-based trajectory generators, and PID feedback controllers. Recently, the concept of CPGs is increasingly used as an alternative approach for online rhythmic trajectory generation (Wilbur et al, 2002;Fukuoka et al, 2003;Nakanishi et al, 2004;Ijspeert et al, 2005). In most cases, the CPGs are implemented as recurrent neural networks or systems of coupled nonlinear oscillators.…”

Section: Related Workmentioning

confidence: 99%

Controlling swimming and crawling in a fish robot using a central pattern generator

et al. 2007

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Online trajectory generation for robots with multiple degrees of freedom is still a difficult and unsolved problem, in particular for non-steady state locomotion, that is, when the robot has to move in a complex environment with continuous variations of the speed, direction, and type of locomotor behavior. In this article we address the problem of controlling the non-steady state swimming and crawling of a novel fish robot. For this, we have designed a control architecture based on a central pattern generator (CPG) implemented as a system of coupled nonlinear oscillators. The CPG, like its biological counterpart, can produce coordinated patterns of rhythmic activity while being modulated by simple control parameters.To test our controller, we designed BoxyBot, a simple fish robot with three actuated fins capable of swimming in water and crawling on firm ground. Using the CPG model, the robot is capable of performing and switching between a variety of different locomotor behaviors such as swimming forwards, swimming backwards, turning, rolling, moving upwards/downwards, and crawling. These behaviors are triggered and modulated by sensory input provided by light, water, and touch sensors. Results are presented demonstrating the agility of the robot and interesting properties of a CPG-based control approach such as stability of the rhythmic patterns due to limit cycle behavior, and the production of smooth trajectories despite abrupt changes of control parameters.The robot is currently used in a temporary 15-month long exhibition at the EPFL. We present the hardware setup that was designed for the exhibition, and the type of interactions with the control system that allow visitors to influence the behavior of the robot. The exhibition is useful to test the robustness of the robot for long term use, and to demonstrate the suitability of the CPG-based approach for interactive control with a human in the loop.

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“…Prominent examples include artificial salamanders [1], hexapods [2], snakes [3], worms [4], and smaller quadrupeds [5]. These platforms showcase the interplay of morphology and computation [6] and explore the benefit of highly flexible continuum robots for future applications, like minimal invasive surgery [7].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

A multi-level control architecture for the bionic handling assistant

et al. 2015

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The Bionic Handling Assistant is one of the largest soft continuum robots and very special in being a pneumatically operated platform that is able to bend, stretch, and grasp in all directions. It nevertheless shares many challenges with smaller continuum and other softs robots such as parallel actuation, complex movement dynamics, slow pneumatic actuation, non-stationary behavior, and a lack of analytic models. To master the control of this challenging robot, we argue for a tight integration of standard analytic tools, simulation, control, and state of the art machine learning into an overall architecture that can serve as blueprint for control design also beyond the BHA. To this aim, we show how to integrate specific modes of operation and different levels of control in a synergistic manner, which is enabled by using modern paradigms of software architecture and middleware. We thereby achieve an architecture with unique overall control abilities for a soft continuum robot that allow for flexible experimentation towards compliant user-interaction, grasping, and online learning of internal models.

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Simulation and Robotics Studies of Salamander Locomotion: Applying Neurobiological Principles to the Control of Locomotion in Robots

Cited by 159 publications

References 54 publications

Engineering entrainment and adaptation in limit cycle systems

Engineering entrainment and adaptation in limit cycle systems

Controlling swimming and crawling in a fish robot using a central pattern generator

A multi-level control architecture for the bionic handling assistant

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