Research Institute of Electrical Communication, Tohoku University, 2-1-1 Katahira, Aoba-ku, Sendai 980-8577, Japan.
Bioinspir Biomim. 2012 Mar;7(1):016005. doi: 10.1088/1748-3182/7/1/016005. Epub 2011 Dec 19.
Autonomous decentralized control has attracted considerable attention because it enables us to understand the adaptive and versatile locomotion of animals and facilitates the construction of truly intelligent artificial agents. Thus far, we have developed a snake-like robot (HAUBOT I) that is driven by a decentralized control scheme based on a discrepancy function, which incorporates phasic control. In this paper, we investigate a decentralized control scheme in which phasic and tonic control are well coordinated, as an extension of our previous study. To verify the validity of the proposed control scheme, we apply it to a snake-like robot (HAUBOT II) that can adjust both the phase relationship between its body segments and the stiffness at each joint. The results indicate that the proposed control scheme enables the robot to exhibit remarkable real-time adaptability over various frictional and inclined terrains. These findings can potentially enable us to gain a deeper insight into the autonomous decentralized control mechanism underlying the adaptive and resilient locomotion of animals.
自主分散控制引起了相当的关注，因为它使我们能够理解动物自适应和多用途的运动，并有助于构建真正智能的人工代理。到目前为止，我们已经开发了一种基于差异函数的分散控制方案驱动的蛇形机器人（HAUBOT I），该方案结合了相位控制。在本文中，我们研究了一种分散控制方案，其中相位和紧张控制得到很好的协调，作为我们以前研究的扩展。为了验证所提出的控制方案的有效性，我们将其应用于一种能够调整身体各节段之间的相位关系和每个关节的刚度的蛇形机器人（HAUBOT II）。结果表明，所提出的控制方案使机器人能够在各种摩擦和倾斜地形上表现出显著的实时适应性。这些发现可能使我们能够更深入地了解动物自适应和有弹性运动的自主分散控制机制。
