An insect robot controlled by the emergence of gait patterns

A major problem with walking robots is how to control their walking under unpredictably changing environments. Most walking robots proposed to date can walk in limited environments in which gait patterns are kinematically but not dynamically determined in advance. This means that such robots cannot walk and adapt to changes in the world, while animals can walk flexibly and efficiently in the real world. It has been considered that flexibility and efficiency in animals originate in the pattern of emergence of control information. We have already clarified the mechanism of flexible and efficient generation of gait patterns in animals, so we have tried to make an insect robot based on these mechanisms which can walk and adapt to unpredictable changes in the environment. Since these mechanisms are quite new and are also applicable to other artificial systems, we discuss the emergence system as the control mechanism attaining the target state under the constraints of the real world.

1. S. Watanabe

   Present address: Networking Laboratory, NTT Multimedia Networks Laboratories, Yokosuka, Japan

Authors and Affiliations

1. Research Institute of Electrical Communication, Tohoku University, 2-1-1 Katahira Aoba-ku, 980-8577, Sendai, Japan

   K. Akimoto, S. Watanabe & M. Yano

Corresponding author

Correspondence to K. Akimoto.