Stay in control by letting go: The embodiment of behaviors in soft-bodied robots
Event details
| Date | 06.07.2010 |
| Hour | 11:00 |
| Speaker | Huai-Ti Lin, Tufts University, Boston USA |
| Location | |
| Category | Conferences - Seminars |
Soft structures impose a great challenge to any control system both in biology and robotics. With flexibility in the geometry, the degrees of freedom quickly become unmanageable to monitor. Ground reaction forces data and gait analysis of caterpillars suggest that a soft-bodied animal may not rely on body position as the primary feedback for locomotor control. Using a variety of silicon elastomer and shape memory alloy coils, we implemented a soft-bodied robotic system that requires no position feedback to generate stable locomotion. Such physical simulation led to three reasons why exact posture and environmental mapping is not ideal for controlling soft structures. First of all, due to the nature of large deformation most mechanical properties in soft structures cannot be linear and therefore measured consistently. Secondly, by definition, a soft-bodied robot cannot force any particular rigid posture and still be considered soft. Finally, compliance and variability enhance the robustness of the locomotion. Attempts to increase actuators for fixing the kinematics have been counter-productive. For soft robotics, a systematic material tuning exercise may take the place of PID controller in traditional robotics as we learn how to “program” behaviors in structures and materials.
Practical information
- General public
- Free
Contact
- Kovac Mirko