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Dynamic bipedal walking of a dinosaur-like robot with an extant vertebrate's nervous system

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  05 December 2013

Yasuhiro Fukuoka  and
Junki Akama
Yasuhiro Fukuoka*
Affiliation:
Department of Intelligent Engineering, College of Engineering, Ibaraki University, 4-12-1 Nakanarusawa-cho, Hitachi-shi, Ibaraki 316-8511, Japan
Junki Akama
Affiliation:
Seiko Epson Corporation, 80 Hirookaharashinden, Shiojiri-shi, Nagano 399-0785, Japan
*
*Corresponding author. E-mail: fukuoka@mx.ibaraki.ac.jp
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Summary

In this study, we attempt to develop a biped dinosaur-like walking robot by focusing on its nervous system as well as its mechanism. We developed a robot ‘Dinobot’ on the basis of palaeontological knowledge on dinosaurs and extant animals. In addition, we employed typical biologically inspired walking gait generation and control methods derived from an extant vertebrate's nervous system. In particular, we utilized a central pattern generator (CPG), which is a locomotion rhythm generator in a vertebrate's spinal cord, to generate the robot's walking rhythm. Moreover, a reflex centre was placed below CPG and it produced joint torque of the legs in the swing and stance phases. Thus, we successfully achieved adaptive 3D dynamic walking generated by the interaction between the original mechanism of dinosaurs and the nervous system of extant animals. Our future goal is to find out a dinosaur's robust locomotive nervous system suitable for its mechanism.

Keywords

Biped robot3D dynamic walkingDinosaur-like robotCentral pattern generatorLimit cycle walking
Type
Articles
Information
Robotica , Volume 32 , Issue 6 , September 2014 , pp. 851 - 865
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2013 

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