G'day,
Just came across a paper discussing current 6-legged mechanical walkers.
One of the things these guys have managed to do is make sure leg trajectories
are always adapted such that "mechanical stress is reduced. This even holds
true for special situations like, for example, walking over obstacles,
stumbling, or walking with partially or totally amputated legs." While these
guys are concerned with replicating insect movements it has
interesting implications for immobilising multi-leg walkers in DS
etc....
he's not immobilised he's just picked up a limp....
Cheers
[quoted original message omitted]
G'day,
> Source ? Or URL ?
It came from my current contents autoupdate this morning (automated search
facility that checks a database of the latest abstracts once a week). If its
any help I've stuck the abstract in below.
Cheers
Beth
> [quoted text omitted]
Title: Behavior and adaptability of a six-legged walking system with
highly
distributed control |
Author: Kindermann T(kindermann@biologie.uni-bielefeld.de)(Reprint)
Journal: ADAPTIVE BEHAVIOR, 2001, vol. 9 (1) pp. 16 - 41.
Abstract. A situated, moderately complex kinematic system-here an
18-degree-of-freedom six-legged walking system-can show a variety of
behaviors, even when controlled by a relatively simple controller. Therefore,
a detailed quantitative study of the behavior of such a system is necessary to
achieve an understanding of its properties. This "artificial ethology" is
applied to a controller with a decentralized structure that uses essential
design characteristics of its biological model, the stick insect. The system
takes advantage of recurrent connections that establish a loop through the
environment. Despite its completely reactive nature, the system can adapt to
unpredictable external conditions with no need for specific reprogramming. Leg
trajectories are always adapted such that mechanical stress is reduced. This
even holds true for special situations like, for example, walking over
obstacles, stumbling, or walking with partially or totally amputated legs.
Similarities and important discrepancies between the model's behavior and the
walking behavior of stick insects are discussed.
Keywords. Author-assigned Keywords: motor control; walking; stick
insect; distributed control; adaptability
ISI-assigned Keywords Plus: INSECT CARAUSIUS-MOROSUS; STICK INSECT;
COUPLING MECHANISMS; PATTERN GENERATION; PARAMETERS CONTROL; IPSILATERAL LEGS;
LOADING PARALLEL; MUSCLE RECEPTOR; HEXAPOD ROBOT; ROUGH TERRAIN