Gait Transition in Artificial Locomotion Systems using Adaptive Control

Jonas Kräml, Carsten Behn

2016

Abstract

This paper deals with the modeling, analysis and controlled gait transitions of terrestrial artificial locomotion systems. These systems are inspired by the motion of earthworms and are firstly moving unidirectionally. In contrast to the analyzed systems in literature, the mechanical model in this paper consists of a chain of 10 discrete mass points. The theory is not restricted to a specified number of mass point, just to a fixed, but arbitrary number. Recent results from literature present investigations of short worms (n < 4). The movement of the whole system is achieved by shortening and lengthening of the distances between consecutive mass points, while they can only move in forward direction. To inhibit the backward movement, a spiky contact to the ground using ideal spikes – preventing velocities from being negative – are attached to every mass point realizing the ground contact. The changes of the distances combined with the ground contact results in a global movement of the system, called undulatory locomotion. But, to change the distances, viscoelastic force actuators link neighboring mass points and shall control desired distances in using adaptive control strategies. Specific gaits are required to guarantee a controlled movement that differ especially in the number of resting mass points and the load of actuators and spikes. To determine the most advantageous gaits, numerical investigations are performed and a weighting function offers a decision of best possible gaits. Using these gaits, a gait transition algorithm, which autonomously changes velocity and number of resting mass points depending on the spike and actuator force load, is presented and tested in numerical simulations.

Paper Citation

in Harvard Style

Kräml J. and Behn C. (2016). Gait Transition in Artificial Locomotion Systems using Adaptive Control . In Proceedings of the 13th International Conference on Informatics in Control, Automation and Robotics - Volume 2: ICINCO, ISBN 978-989-758-198-4, pages 119-129. DOI: 10.5220/0006003001190129

in Bibtex Style

@conference{icinco16,
author={Jonas Kräml and Carsten Behn},
title={Gait Transition in Artificial Locomotion Systems using Adaptive Control},
booktitle={Proceedings of the 13th International Conference on Informatics in Control, Automation and Robotics - Volume 2: ICINCO,},
year={2016},
pages={119-129},
publisher={SciTePress},
organization={INSTICC},
doi={10.5220/0006003001190129},
isbn={978-989-758-198-4},
}

in EndNote Style

TY - CONF
JO - Proceedings of the 13th International Conference on Informatics in Control, Automation and Robotics - Volume 2: ICINCO,
TI - Gait Transition in Artificial Locomotion Systems using Adaptive Control
SN - 978-989-758-198-4
AU - Kräml J.
AU - Behn C.
PY - 2016
SP - 119
EP - 129
DO - 10.5220/0006003001190129