Towards a general neural controller for 3D quadrupedal locomotion

Maufroy, Christophe; Kimura, Hiroshi; Takase, Kunikatsu

doi:10.1109/sice.2008.4655085

Cited by 7 publications

(19 citation statements)

References 5 publications

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“…The related works of bipedal locomotion [34][35][36][37][38][39][40][41][42] mainly suggested the importance of weight bearing and the timing of transition between extensor and flexor activities through afferent feedback, but the passive elastic elements of muscles such as F p were arbitrarily determined and their importance was hardly noted. By contrast, we found that since more stability was necessary in 3-D quadrupedal locomotion, leg trajectory control to some extent was vital.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…They built a finely designed hind leg model based on biological findings because of their stated aim from a physiological standpoint that "The model can be used as a testbed to study spinal control of locomotion in various normal and pathological conditions." 40 Therefore, similarly to Maufroy et al's model, 36,37 Markin et al's model 40 may be too complex to be used as a locomotion controller for a quadruped robot (i.e. each leg's CPG consists of 32 neurons, whereas our CPG has 12 neurons).…”

Section: Related Work With Neuromorphic Two-level Cpg Modelsmentioning

confidence: 91%

“…Regarding No. 3, leg loading feedback to the RG part is applied in related works, [34][35][36][37][38][39][40][41][42] but it is novel that we find that this element causes a non-preprogrammed walk gait in a 3-D environment ("Flat terrain locomotion with afferent feedback" section) and that this gait results in stable locomotion even over uneven terrain ("Irregular terrain walking" section).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 94%

“…The researchers also developed a rat simulation model using the same method to perform hind leg walking. 39 Maufroy et al 36,37 and Markin et al 40 used a two-level CPG in a more realistic way for each leg. Maufroy et al 36 demonstrated the planar walking of cat-like hind legs in simulation.…”

Section: Related Work With Neuromorphic Two-level Cpg Modelsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Parameter tuning. As described in the "Related works with neuromorphic two-level CPG models" section, our CPG model for each leg is simpler, with far fewer parameters than in the most closely related works, 36,37,40 but it still has a large number of parameters. However, we found that the parameters in each part of our CPG had a particular feature.…”

Section: Neural Systemmentioning

confidence: 99%

See 4 more Smart Citations

Three-dimensional walking of a simulated muscle-driven quadruped robot with neuromorphic two-level central pattern generators

Habu

Uta

Fukuoka

2019

International Journal of Advanced Robotic Systems

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We aim to design a neuromorphic controller for the locomotion of a quadruped robot with muscle-driven leg mechanisms. To this end, we use a simulated cat model; each leg of the model is equipped with three joints driven by six muscle models incorporating two-joint muscles. For each leg, we use a two-level central pattern generator consisting of a rhythm generation part to produce basic rhythms and a pattern formation part to synergistically activate a different set of muscles in each of the four sequential phases (swing, touchdown, stance, and liftoff). Conventionally, it was difficult for a quadruped model with such realistic neural systems and muscle-driven leg mechanisms to walk even on flat terrain, but because of our improved neural and mechanical components, our quadruped model succeeds in reproducing motoneuron activations and leg trajectories similar to those in cats and achieves stable three-dimensional locomotion at a variety of speeds. Moreover, the quadruped is capable of walking upslope and over irregular terrains and adapting to perturbations, even without adjusting the parameters.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Related Work With Neuromorphic Two-level Cpg Modelsmentioning

confidence: 91%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 94%

Section: Related Work With Neuromorphic Two-level Cpg Modelsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Neural Systemmentioning

confidence: 99%

See 3 more Smart Citations

Three-dimensional walking of a simulated muscle-driven quadruped robot with neuromorphic two-level central pattern generators

Habu

Uta

Fukuoka

2019

International Journal of Advanced Robotic Systems

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Analysis and Application of a Displacement CPG-Based Method on Articulated Frames

Rico

Hernández²

2017

Communications in Computer and Information Science

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Walking with perturbations: a guide for biped humans and robots

Duysens

Forner-Cordero

2018

Bioinspir. Biomim.

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This paper provides an update on the neural control of bipedal walking in relation to bioinspired models and robots. It is argued that most current models or robots are based on the construct of a symmetrical central pattern generator (CPG). However, new evidence suggests that CPG functioning is basically asymmetrical with its flexor half linked more tightly to the rhythm generator. The stability of bipedal gait, which is an important problem for robots and biological systems, is also addressed. While it is not possible to determine how biological biped systems guarantee stability, robot solutions can be useful to propose new hypotheses for biology. In the second part of this review, the focus is on gait perturbations, which is an important topic in robotics in view of the frequent falls of robots when faced with perturbations. From the human physiology it is known that the initial reaction often consists of a brief interruption followed by an adequate response. For instance, the successful recovery from a trip is achieved using some basic reactions (termed elevating and lowering strategies), that depend on the phase of the step cycle of the trip occurrence. Reactions to stepping unexpectedly in a hole depend on comparing expected and real feedback. Implementation of these ideas in models and robotics starts to emerge, with the most advanced robots being able to learn how to fall safely and how to deal with complicated disturbances such as provided by walking on a split-belt.

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Towards a general neural controller for 3D quadrupedal locomotion

Cited by 7 publications

References 5 publications

Three-dimensional walking of a simulated muscle-driven quadruped robot with neuromorphic two-level central pattern generators

Three-dimensional walking of a simulated muscle-driven quadruped robot with neuromorphic two-level central pattern generators

Analysis and Application of a Displacement CPG-Based Method on Articulated Frames

Walking with perturbations: a guide for biped humans and robots

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