Gait Adaptation on Visually Guided Walking Robots
Abstract:
The biological foundation of most natural locomotory systems is the
Central Pattern Generator (CPG). The CPG is a set of neural circuits
found in the spinal cord, arranged to produce oscillatory periodic
waveforms that activate muscles in a coordinated. A 2nd generation VLSI
CPG emulator chip - with more and improved neurons, enhanced
flexibility, and a higher degree of programmability - has been built to
synchronize oscillators with different frequencies and phases, also
produced by the chip, through the coupling of integrate-and-fire (IF)
silicon neurons. The oscillators are then used to control the movement
of a robot's limbs by using the IF neurons to set a specific phase
difference between the
oscillators.
Preliminary Results:
The chip has been tested, proven to work and is now being reprogrammed
using a PIC microcontroller to allow this processing center to
confortably fit on a robot's back. The goal is to achieve a
self-contained biped locomotion solution using as little power as
possible.
References and Publications:
- F. Tenore, R. Etienne-Cummings, and M.A. Lewis. "Entrainment of Silicon Central Pattern Generators for Legged Locomotory Control," Advances in Neural Information Processing Systems (Pending Publication)
- M. A. Lewis, R. Etienne-Cummings, M. J. Hartmann, A.
H. Cohen, Z. R. Xu, "An in silico central pattern generator: silicon
oscillator, coupling, entrainment, and physical computation," Biological Cybernetics, v.88, n.2,
2003, pp. 137-151.
- M.A. Lewis, R. Etienne-Cummings, A.H. Cohen, M.
Hartmann, "Toward biomorphic control using custom aVLSI chips," Proceedings of the International
conference on Robotics and Automation, San Francisco, CA, 2000.