Ritzmann Roy E, Quinn Roger D, Fischer Martin S
Department of Biology, Case Western Reserve University, 10900 Euclid Avenue, Cleveland, OH 44106-7080, USA.
Arthropod Struct Dev. 2004 Jul;33(3):361-79. doi: 10.1016/j.asd.2004.05.001.
Arthropods are the most successful members of the animal kingdom largely because of their ability to move efficiently through a range of environments. Their agility has not been lost on engineers seeking to design agile legged robots. However, one cannot simply copy mechanical and neural control systems from insects into robotic designs. Rather one has to select the properties that are critical for specific behaviors that the engineer wants to capture in a particular robot. Convergent evolution provides an important clue to the properties of legged locomotion that are critical for success. Arthropods and vertebrates evolved legged locomotion independently. Nevertheless, many neural control properties and mechanical schemes are remarkably similar. Here we describe three aspects of legged locomotion that are found in both insects and vertebrates and that provide enhancements to legged robots. They are leg specialization, body flexion and the development of a complex head structure. Although these properties are commonly seen in legged animals, most robotic vehicles have similar legs throughout, rigid bodies and rudimentary sensors on what would be considered the head region. We describe these convergent properties in the context of robots that we developed to capture the agility of insects in moving through complex terrain.
节肢动物是动物王国中最成功的成员，这很大程度上归功于它们能够在各种环境中高效移动的能力。它们的敏捷性并没有被寻求设计敏捷腿部机器人的工程师们所忽视。然而，人们不能简单地将昆虫的机械和神经控制系统复制到机器人设计中。相反，人们必须选择对于工程师希望在特定机器人中实现的特定行为至关重要的特性。趋同进化为成功的腿部运动特性提供了重要线索。节肢动物和脊椎动物独立地进化出了腿部运动。然而，许多神经控制特性和机械方案却非常相似。在这里，我们描述了昆虫和脊椎动物中都存在的、对腿部机器人有增强作用的腿部运动的三个方面。它们是腿部特化、身体弯曲以及复杂头部结构的发展。尽管这些特性在有腿动物中很常见，但大多数机器人车辆的腿部在整个身体上都很相似，身体是刚性的，并且在被认为是头部区域的地方有基本的传感器。我们在我们开发的用于捕捉昆虫在复杂地形中移动时的敏捷性的机器人的背景下描述这些趋同特性。
