Owaki Dai, Kano Takeshi, Nagasawa Ko, Tero Atsushi, Ishiguro Akio
Research Institute of Electrical Communication, Tohoku University, 2-1-1 Katahira, Aoba-ku, Sendai, Japan.
J R Soc Interface. 2013 Jan 6;10(78):20120669. doi: 10.1098/rsif.2012.0669. Epub 2012 Nov 8.
Quadrupeds have versatile gait patterns, depending on the locomotion speed, environmental conditions and animal species. These locomotor patterns are generated via the coordination between limbs and are partly controlled by an intraspinal neural network called the central pattern generator (CPG). Although this forms the basis for current control paradigms of interlimb coordination, the mechanism responsible for interlimb coordination remains elusive. By using a minimalistic approach, we have developed a simple-structured quadruped robot, with the help of which we propose an unconventional CPG model that consists of four decoupled oscillators with only local force feedback in each leg. Our robot exhibits good adaptability to changes in weight distribution and walking speed simply by responding to local feedback, and it can mimic the walking patterns of actual quadrupeds. Our proposed CPG-based control method suggests that physical interaction between legs during movements is essential for interlimb coordination in quadruped walking.
四足动物具有多种步态模式，这取决于运动速度、环境条件和动物种类。这些运动模式是通过四肢之间的协调产生的，部分由一个称为中枢模式发生器（CPG）的脊髓内神经网络控制。尽管这构成了当前肢体间协调控制范式的基础，但负责肢体间协调的机制仍然难以捉摸。通过采用一种简约的方法，我们开发了一种结构简单的四足机器人，借助它我们提出了一种非常规的CPG模型，该模型由四个解耦的振荡器组成，每条腿只有局部力反馈。我们的机器人仅通过响应局部反馈就表现出对重量分布和行走速度变化的良好适应性，并且它可以模仿实际四足动物的行走模式。我们提出的基于CPG的控制方法表明，运动过程中腿部之间的物理相互作用对于四足行走中的肢体间协调至关重要。
