Umedachi Takuya, Kano Takeshi, Ishiguro Akio, Trimmer Barry A
Graduate School of Information Science and Technology , The University of Tokyo , Takeda Bldg. Rm. 309, 2-11-16 Yayoi, Bunkyo-ku, Tokyo 113-0032 , Japan.
Research Institute of Electrical Communication , Tohoku University , 2-1-1 Katahira, Aoba-ku, Sendai 980-8577 , Japan.
R Soc Open Sci. 2016 Dec 7;3(12):160766. doi: 10.1098/rsos.160766. eCollection 2016 Dec.
All animals use mechanosensors to help them move in complex and changing environments. With few exceptions, these sensors are embedded in soft tissues that deform in normal use such that sensory feedback results from the interaction of an animal with its environment. Useful information about the environment is expected to be embedded in the mechanical responses of the tissues during movements. To explore how such sensory information can be used to control movements, we have developed a soft-bodied crawling robot inspired by a highly tractable animal model, the tobacco hornworm . This robot uses deformations of its body to detect changes in friction force on a substrate. This information is used to provide local sensory feedback for coupled oscillators that control the robot's locomotion. The validity of the control strategy is demonstrated with both simulation and a highly deformable three-dimensionally printed soft robot. The results show that very simple oscillators are able to generate propagating waves and crawling/inching locomotion through the interplay of deformation in different body parts in a fully decentralized manner. Additionally, we confirmed numerically and experimentally that the gait pattern can switch depending on the surface contact points. These results are expected to help in the design of adaptable, robust locomotion control systems for soft robots and also suggest testable hypotheses about how soft animals use sensory feedback.
所有动物都利用机械传感器来帮助它们在复杂多变的环境中移动。除了少数例外，这些传感器都嵌入在正常使用中会变形的软组织中，这样感觉反馈就来自于动物与其环境的相互作用。关于环境的有用信息预计会嵌入到运动过程中组织的机械反应中。为了探索如何利用这种感觉信息来控制运动，我们受一种极易处理的动物模型——烟草天蛾的启发，开发了一种软体爬行机器人。这个机器人利用其身体的变形来检测在基质上摩擦力的变化。该信息用于为控制机器人运动的耦合振荡器提供局部感觉反馈。通过模拟和一个高度可变形的三维打印软体机器人证明了控制策略的有效性。结果表明，非常简单的振荡器能够以完全分散的方式，通过不同身体部位变形的相互作用产生传播波和爬行/蠕动运动。此外，我们通过数值和实验证实，步态模式可以根据表面接触点而切换。这些结果有望有助于设计适用于软体机器人的适应性强、稳健的运动控制系统，也为软体动物如何利用感觉反馈提出了可检验的假设。
