Performance measures for locomotion robots

We design two performance measures for a planar locomotion robot, modeled closely after the Platonic Beast. The first measure is proportional to the total motion of all joints during locomotion of the robot. This is a rough approximation to the energy consumption of the robot. The second measure determines the maximal speed of locomotion, for given limits on the joint speeds. We compute optimal modes of locomotion on different slopes for various designs. The results indicate that a variable link length can greatly improve the ability of the robot to walk on steep slopes. © 1997 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.     

Experimentally Verified Optimal Serpentine Gait and Hyperredundancy of a Rigid-Link Snake Robot

In this study, we examine, for a six-link snake robot, how an optimal gait might change as a function of the snake- surface interaction model and how the overall locomotion performance changes under nonoptimal conditions such as joint failure. Simulations are evaluated for three different types of friction models, and it is shown that the gait parameters for serpentine motion are very dependant on the frictional model if minimum power expenditure is desired for a given velocity. Experimental investigations then motivate a surface interaction model not commonly used in snake locomotion studies. Using this new model, simulation results are compared to experiments for nominal and nonnominal locomotion cases including actuator faults. It is shown that this model quite accurately predicts locomotion velocities and link profiles, but that the accuracy of these predictions degrades severely at speeds where actuator dynamics become significant.     

压电谐振驱动三足机器人的平面运动

设计并实现了一类利用压电陶瓷片作动,由三条曲梁足支撑的振动驱动机器人.建立了在一条足共振驱动下机器人水平运动的动力学方程,数值计算解释了摩擦作用下的运动机理,寻找到异性摩擦对运动方向、速度的影响和压电激励频率与运动速度间的关系.通过建立圆弧曲梁控制方程求解圆弧型足面内振动的固有频率及振型,设计了三组不同频率的圆弧曲梁足参数,实验制作了机器人模型,利用压电控制三足间振动的共振切换,实现了预想的三个方向的运动以达到平面运动的效果,实验测量了机器人的运动速度与理论计算吻合得较好.     

Control of a quadruped standing jump over irregular terrain obstacles

In this paper the control of a quadruped standing jump over irregular terrain obstacles is investigated. Control strategies are developed for thetakeoff, flight and thelanding phases of a standing jump. Using a simplified planar model and the concept ofeffective linear momentum, simple feedforward leg force profiles are planned to remove the linear and angular momentum of the body during landing. Super real-time simulation, which involves predicting landing conditions based on faster than real-time simulation using the simplified model, is used to select leg touchdown angles for landing. Using the principle of symmetry, the leg forces during takeoff are derived from those predicted for landing. Leg motions are planned to maximize clearance during flight and stability during landing. Using these strategies, the quadruped is able to clear a variety of obstacles including isolated walls, terrain steps, and ditches. Simulation results are compared with experimental data of an animal jump from the literature.     

足式机器人SLIP模型向上跳跃台阶的运动控制

由于存在地势起伏,台阶对足式机器人运动稳定性会带来较大挑战.弹簧负载倒立摆模型(SLIP)作为研究足式机器人的优良模板,能否完成向上跳跃台阶的动作与其腿部摆角,起跳位置和跳跃高度都有密切的关系.由于调整模型腿部摆角规律容易引发运动失效,故本文在算法中引入虚拟弹簧腿,根据虚拟弹簧腿的运行规律确定合理起跳位置,根据起跳位置来控制系统跳跃高度进而完成跳跃台阶的动作.最后利用仿真软件进行多组仿真,结果表明本文算法对起跳区间划分合理,对起跳高度控制精准,能够实现SLIP模型跳跃台阶前后的稳定运动.     

A one linear actuator hopping robot: modeling and control

This paper addresses the modeling and control design of a one linear actuator hopping robot. The robot consists of a body and a leg, which are in contact with a sufficiently wide horizontal ground surface; both are fixed rigidly. Force actuation affects the angle of the body by a force couple that arises due to the mass of the body, as well as the length of the leg; hence both the angular velocity of the body and height of a jump can be controlled by only one actuator. Since the aim of this study is to achieve continuous hopping motion while keeping the system as simple as possible, an ON-OFF actuator is employed. Hence, we consider utilizing the thrust timing of the actuator—when robot is in the stance phase—to control the gait. For better stability of the hopping motion, optimization of mechanical parameters was made possible by evaluating the numerically obtained transition map, which contains a transition from one standard position to the next. The system is considered as a discrete system, in which one cycle of motion is regarded as one sampling interval. Finally, a control system was designed in which, by simulation, the continuous hopping gait was realized.     

双足机器人虚拟斜坡行走的抗扰能力研究

：在无外部传感器的开环条件下,应用虚拟斜坡行走方法在平面双足机器人Stepper-2D 上实现了10%腿 长的跨越台阶抗扰行走．为了研究虚拟斜坡行走的抗扰能力,引入了地面台阶扰动,利用跨越台阶前后截面状态之 间的关系证明了台阶扰动最终可以转化为系统的初始状态扰动,虚拟斜坡行走良好的抗扰性能来源于自身不动点的 稳定性．通过分析过渡过程中系统截面状态之间的关系,得到了系统能够跨越台阶的充要条件,并研究了腿长缩短 系数β 、瞬间伸长角θ*II 以及两腿夹角φ0和所能跨越的最大相对障碍高度之间的关系,对所取得的10%腿长的跨越 台阶抗扰行走实验结果给出了理论解释．     

Design of an shape memory alloy-actuated biomimetic mobile robot with the jumping gait

This paper reports the design, simulation, analysis, and experiments of mesoscale fourlegged robots that can locomote by a jumping gait using only shape memory alloy (SMA) wires as actuators. Through studies of the structure and function of leg muscle groups in vertebrates’ lower musculoskeletal system, three types of muscles are selected for robot leg design, and each muscle is then replaced by an SMA wire in the robot model. Two types of robot models are proposed and analyzed using three sets of computer simulation. It can be concluded from the simulation that the sequence of SMA muscle activation, activation arrangement of the rear and the front legs, and the foot length are primary factors determining the jumping performance. It is observed that when the robot has three degrees of freedom for each leg and a foot length of 40 mm, the maximum jumping height is approximately 120% of the robot’s height and the maximum distance per jump is about 35% of its length. In addition, two robot prototypes are presented based on the design models and experimental results. The simulation and experimental results are found to show good agreement. The overall results show that the proposed robot design and SMA actuation method are feasible for all SMA-driven jumping robots.     

The dynamic optimization approach to locomotion dynamics: human-like gaits from a minimally-constrained biped model

This work presents a unifying framework to study energy-efficient optimal gaits for a bipedal model without elastic elements. The model includes a torso, flat feet, and telescoping legs, equipped with rotational hip and ankle joints. Two general types of gaits are studied: with and without a flight phase. The support surface can be level ground, sloped, or staircase. The algorithm achieves the optimum within the admissible space by using a minimal set of realistic physical constraints, and avoiding a priori assumptions on kinetic and kinematic parameters such as extended or instantaneous double-support, collisional or collisionless foot-ground contact, step length, step period, etc. The gait optimization for this simple model predicts many features of human locomotion including the optimality of pendular walking and impulsive running at slow and fast progression speeds, ankle push-off prior to touch-down, swing leg retraction, landing on a near vertical leg in gaits with flight phase, and burst hip torques at both ends of the swing phase.     

Independent spanning trees on even networks

The use of multiple independent spanning trees (ISTs) for data broadcasting in networks provides a number of advantages, including the increase of fault-tolerance and bandwidth. Thus, the designs of multiple ISTs on several classes of networks have been widely investigated. In this paper, we give an algorithm to construct ISTs on even networks, and show that these ISTs are optimal for height and path lengths, and each path in the ISTs has length at most the length of the shortest path+4 in the even network.     

Optimal fault tolerant gait sequence of the hexapod robot withoverlapping reachable areas and crab walking

This paper extends the authors' previous results on fault tolerant locomotion of the hexapod robot on even terrain by relaxing nonoverlap of redefined reachable cells of legs and considering crab walking. It is shown that in fault tolerant locomotion two adjacent legs of the hexapod robot can have overlapping redefined reachable cells with each other and consequently the stride length of the gaits is increased. Also, the optimal fault tolerant periodic gaits for hexapod robots to have the maximum stride length in one cycle in crab walking on even terrain are derived with distinct reachable cells. The derived sequence for crab walking has different orders of leg swing according to the relative values of the crab angle and some design parameters of the robot     

一种新的雷达和红外融合算法

针对作机动飞行的空中目标,利用目标多普勒信息和红外辐射信息,建立具有Markov跳交参数的红外系统距离估计模型,基于结构随机跳变系统最优滤波理论,提出了一种红外系统距离估计算法.基于交互式多模型算法(IMM),以红外测距为伪距量测,提出了一种新的主动雷达和红外融合算法.对一个高机动目标跟踪进行了仿真,结果表明红外距离估计误差小,融合算法跟踪精度高,性能良好,易于工程实现.     

A new algorithm to maintain lateral stabilization during the running gait of a quadruped robot

This paper presents a new uncoupled controller (based on a Kinetic Momentum Management Algorithm, KMMA) which allows a quadrupedal robot, whose operation is simple and fast, to run using a symmetrical gait patterns in a wide variety of scenarios. It consists of two tasks: calculating the lateral position and speed of the fore swinging leg when it next makes contact with the ground; and controlling the roll angle by mean of inertia forces using the stance legs.The KMMA provides the benefits of modulation and the synchronization typically presented in CPG (Central Pattern Generation) models. Furthermore, it is able to maintain the locomotion parameters (such as stroke frequency of gait pattern) when the robot runs in a highly disturbed environment, thus resulting in a lower energy consumption. Additionally, the uncoupled scheme of the leg makes the operation computationally cheap, thus avoiding the use of a Virtual Actuator Control or a Hybrid Zero Dynamics.The performance of the KMMA has been verified by means of co-simulation (using ADAMS and MATLAB) with a highly realistic model of a quadruped robot with uncoupled legs. The performance of the algorithm has been tested in different situations in which the following variables have been varied: frontal velocity, turning ratio, payload, external disturbances and terrain slope. Successful results in terms of stability, energy efficiency, and adaptability to a complex locomotion environment have been obtained.     

The effect of spine on the bounding dynamic performance of legged system

The effect of the spinal joint on the dynamic performance of a legged system in bounding gait is presented in this paper. We employ the simplified quadruped passive model to discuss the underlying mechanism of the bounding gait pattern. A comparison between the dynamic model with and without the spinal joint suggests that the model with a spinal joint is superior to the model with a rigid body in dynamic indicators including the vertical fluctuation of the centre of mass (CoM), leg forces and energy consumption. The effects of different initial included angles of the spinal joint and different initial vertical positions of the CoM on the dynamics of bounding are also analysed. We found that a low level of the energy consumption and leg forces can be obtained with the proper initial included angle and initial vertical position of the CoM, and there exists an optimal situation for each horizontal running velocity that the lowest energy consumption and the lowest leg forces could be obtained at the same time.     

Strengths and limitations of a musculoskeletal model for an analysis of simulated meat cutting tasks

This study assessed the capacity of a musculoskeletal model to predict the relative muscle activation changes as a function of the workbench height and the movement direction during a simulated meat cutting task. Seven subjects performed a cutting task alternating two cutting directions for 20 s at four different workbench heights. Kinematics, electromyography (EMG), and cutting force data were collected and used to drive a musculoskeletal model of the shoulder girdle. The model predicted the muscle forces exerted during the task. Both the recorded and computed activation of the muscles was then compared by means of cross-correlation and by comparison of muscle activation trends with respect to the workstation parameters, i.e. cutting direction and workbench height. The results indicated that cutting movements involving arm flexion are preferable to movement requiring internal arm rotation and abduction. The optimal bench height for meat cutting tasks should be between 20 and 30 cm below the worker's elbow height. The present study underlines a beneficial use of musculoskeletal models for adjusting workstation parameters.     

Sampling‐based hierarchical motion planning for a reconfigurable wheel‐on‐leg planetary analogue exploration rover

Reconfigurable mobile planetary rovers are versatile platforms that may safely traverse cluttered environments by morphing their physical geometry. Planning paths for these adaptive robots is challenging due to their many degrees of freedom, and the need to consider potentially continuous platform reconfiguration along the length of the path. We propose a novel hierarchical structure for asymptotically optimal (AO) sampling‐based planners and specifically apply it to the state‐of‐the‐art Fast Marching Tree (FMT*) AO planner. Our algorithm assumes a decomposition of the full configuration space into multiple subspaces, and begins by rapidly finding a set of paths through one such subspace. This set of solutions is used to generate a biased sampling distribution, which is then explored to find a solution in the full configuration space. This technique provides a novel way to incorporate prior knowledge of subspaces to efficiently bias search within existing AO sampling‐based planners. Importantly, probabilistic completeness and asymptotic optimality are preserved. Experimental results in simulation are provided that benchmark the algorithm against state‐of‐the‐art sampling‐based planners without the hierarchical variation. Additional experimental results performed with a physical wheel‐on‐leg platform demonstrate application to planetary rover mobility and showcase how constraints such as actuator failures and sensor pointing may be easily incorporated into the planning problem. In minimizing an energy objective that combines an approximation of the mechanical work required for platform locomotion with that required for reconfiguration, the planner produces intuitive behaviors where the robot dynamically adjusts its footprint, varies its height, and clambers over obstacles using legged locomotion. These results illustrate the generality of the planner in exploiting the platform's mechanical ability to fluidly transition between various physical geometric configurations, and wheeled/legged locomotion modes, without the need for predefined configurations.     

Kinematics,Dynamics and Power Consumption Analyses for Turning Motion of a Six-Legged Robot

This paper deals with kinematics, dynamics and power consumption analyses of a six-legged robot generating turning motions to follow a circular path. Direct and inverse kinematics analysis has been carried out for each leg in order to develop an overall kinematics model of the six-legged robot. It aims to estimate energy-optimal feet forces and joint torques of the six-legged robot, which are necessary to have for its real-time control. To determine the optimum feet forces, two approaches are developed, such as minimization of norm of feet forces and minimization of norm of joint torques using a least square method, and their performances are compared. The developed kinematics and dynamics models are tested through computer simulations for generating turning motion of a statically stable six-legged robot over flat terrain with four different duty factors. The maximum values of feet forces and joint torques decrease with the increase of duty factor. A power consumption model has been derived for the statically stable wave gaits to minimize the power requirement for both optimal foot force distributions and optimal foot-hold selection. The variations of average power consumption with the height of the trunk body and radial offset have been analyzed in order to find out energy-optimal foothold. A parametric study on energy consumption has been carried out by varying angular velocity of the robot to minimize the total energy consumption during locomotion. It has been found that the energy consumption decreases with the increase of angular velocity for a particular traveled distance.     

Fault-tolerant locomotion of the hexapod robot

In this paper, we propose a scheme for fault detection and tolerance of the hexapod robot locomotion on even terrain. The fault stability margin is defined to represent potential stability which a gait can have in case a sudden fault event occurs to one leg. Based on this, the fault-tolerant quadruped periodic gaits of the hexapod walking over perfectly even terrain are derived. It is demonstrated that the derived quadruped gait is the optimal one the hexapod can have maintaining fault stability margin nonnegative and a geometric condition should be satisfied for the optimal locomotion. By this scheme, when one leg is in failure, the hexapod robot has the modified tripod gait to continue the optimal locomotion.     

A comparison of three insect-inspired locomotion controllers

This paper compares three insect inspired controllers which were implemented on an autonomous hexapod robot. There is a growing interest in using insect locomotion schemes to control walking robots. Researchers' interest in insect-based controllers ranges from understanding the biological basis of locomotion control in insects to building real-time walking machines which require relatively little computational power. Several models for insect locomotion exist, and robotics researchers tend to adopt one approach and experiment with it.

In contrast, this paper offers a comparison of three insect inspired controllers — all of which were implemented and tested on the same autonomous hexapod robot. Some of the controllers used reflex-based mechanisms whereas others used pattern-based mechanisms. Reflexive controllers exploit sensory stimulus and response reactions to produce leg motion and gait coordination. In contrast, pattern-based controllers depend more upon pre-programmed patterns of behavior which may be influenced by external events. Typically, these pre-programmed patterns of behavior are implemented using central pattern generators (CPGs).

In this work, we compare gait coordination performance of three controllers on flat terrain. We extend the comparison to include leg loading considerations, disabled leg compensation, and externally applied leg perturbations. We discuss the differences between controllers with respect to inconsistent leg retraction velocities, leg design issues, sensing requirements, and computational issues. The robot performed quite differently under varying experimental conditions depending upon which controller was used. We found that controller performance was the most sensitive to robot design parameters. For our case, we had the most success with pattern-based mechanisms given the leg design of our robot and its limitations in controlling the retraction velocity of its legs. The pattern-based mechanisms allowed the robot to remain stable over a variety of gaits while the robot was subjected to loading the legs, disabling a leg, and physically disturbing the legs. The reflexive mechanisms were less successful at maintaining stability when the robot's legs were increasingly disrupted.     

Lumbo-sacral loads and selected muscle activity while turning patients in bed

Handling patients in bed using a piqué (a waterproof padded sheet placed under the patient) is associated with a high incidence of risks for the spine with, in particular, the activity of pulling and turning the patient with the pique representing the highest risk. Fifteen female nursing aides were evaluated for compression and shear forces at the L5/S1 joint and for selected muscular activities in the trunk and shoulders. Films, force platforms and EMG recordings supplied the data; dynamic segmental analyses were performed to calculate reaction forces at L5/S1, and a planar single-muscle equivalent was used to estimate internal loads. Different execution parameters were examined including execution velocity, height of bed, direction of effort, leg position and knee support. A ‘free’ task, and a manual task not involving the pique, were also investigated. Recommendations are made for reducing spinal loading. The results also suggest that a change of direction in the trunk motion may present some risks when associated with handling of heavy loads. Furthermore transfer of problems from a particular joint to other joints is likely to occur.