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Intelligent control of soft robots is challenging due to the nonlinear and difficult-to-model dynamics. One promising model-free approach for soft robot control is reinforcement learning (RL). However, model-free RL methods tend to be…
The main question this paper addresses is: What combination of a robot controller and a learning method should be used, if the morphology of the learning robot is not known in advance? Our interest is rooted in the context of…
Biped robots are inherently unstable because of their complex kinematics as well as dynamics. Despite the many research efforts in developing biped locomotion, the performance of biped locomotion is still far from the expectations. This…
Robots operating in human environments need various skills, like slow and fast walking, turning, side-stepping, and many more. However, building robot controllers that can exhibit such a large range of behaviors is a challenging problem…
Cyborg in the brain-machine interface field has attracted more attention in recent years. To control a creature via a machine called cyborg method, three stages are considerable: stimulation of neurons, neural response, and the behavioral…
Legged robots have significant potential to operate in highly unstructured environments. The design of locomotion control is, however, still challenging. Currently, controllers must be either manually designed for specific robots and tasks,…
Crawling is a common locomotion mechanism in soft robots and nonskeletal animals. In this work we propose modeling soft-robotic legged locomotion by approximating it with an equivalent articulated robot with elastic joints. For concreteness…
This paper aims to solve the contact-aware locomotion problem of a soft snake robot by developing bio-inspired contact-aware locomotion controllers. To provide effective contact information for the controllers, we develop a scale-covered…
Many organisms leverage an interplay between shape and activity to generate motion and adapt to their environment. Embedding such feedback into synthetic microrobots could eliminate the need for sensors, software, and actuators, yet current…
Recent research on mobile robots has focused on increasing their adaptability to unpredictable and unstructured environments using soft materials and structures. However, the determination of key design parameters and control over these…
In this paper, we present a model-free learning-based control scheme for the soft snake robot to improve its contact-aware locomotion performance in a cluttered environment. The control scheme includes two cooperative controllers: A…
Rhythmic gait patterns in animal locomotion are widely believed to be produced by a central pattern generator (CPG), a network of neurons that drives the muscle groups. In previous papers we have discussed how phase-synchronous signals can…
Developing robust locomotion for humanoid robots is a complex task due to the unstable nature of these robots and also to the unpredictability of the terrain. A robust locomotion planner is one of the fundamental components for generating…
In this letter, we formulate a novel Markov Decision Process (MDP) for safe and data-efficient learning for humanoid locomotion aided by a dynamic balancing model. In our previous studies of biped locomotion, we relied on a low-dimensional…
Biological nervous systems typically perform the control of numerous degrees of freedom for example in animal limbs. Neuromorphic engineers study these systems by emulating them in hardware for a deeper understanding and its possible…
Multi-legged mobile robots possess high mobility performance in rough terrain environments, stemming from their high postural stability, joint flexibility, and the redundancy provided by multiple legs. In prior research on navigating…
Neuromechanics aims to understand the link between an animal's neural activity and its physical behaviors. Recent advances in experimental and machine learning techniques enable simultaneous recordings of neural and locomotion dynamics over…
A variety of nonlinear models of biological systems generate complex chaotic behaviors that contrast with biological homeostasis, the observation that many biological systems prove remarkably robust in the face of changing external or…
Animal locomotion employs different periodic patterns known as animal gaits. In 1993 Collins and Stewart achieved the characterization in quadrupeds and bipeds by using permutation symmetries groups which impose constrains in the locomotion…
We propose a novel discrete model of central pattern generators (CPG), neuronal ensembles generating rhythmic activity. The model emphasizes the role of nonsynaptic interactions and the diversity of electrical properties in nervous systems.…