A brittle star-like robot capable of immediately adapting to unexpected physical damage
A major challenge in robotic design is enabling robots to immediately adapt to unexpected physical damage. However, conventional robots require considerable time (more than several tens of seconds) for adaptation because the process entails high computational costs. To overcome this problem, we focu...
| Main Authors: | , , , , , |
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
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The Royal Society
2017-01-01
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| Series: | Royal Society Open Science |
| Subjects: | |
| Online Access: | https://royalsocietypublishing.org/doi/pdf/10.1098/rsos.171200 |
| _version_ | 1818187677552345088 |
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| author | Takeshi Kano Eiki Sato Tatsuya Ono Hitoshi Aonuma Yoshiya Matsuzaka Akio Ishiguro |
| author_facet | Takeshi Kano Eiki Sato Tatsuya Ono Hitoshi Aonuma Yoshiya Matsuzaka Akio Ishiguro |
| author_sort | Takeshi Kano |
| collection | DOAJ |
| description | A major challenge in robotic design is enabling robots to immediately adapt to unexpected physical damage. However, conventional robots require considerable time (more than several tens of seconds) for adaptation because the process entails high computational costs. To overcome this problem, we focus on a brittle star—a primitive creature with expendable body parts. Brittle stars, most of which have five flexible arms, occasionally lose some of them and promptly coordinate the remaining arms to escape from predators. We adopted a synthetic approach to elucidate the essential mechanism underlying this resilient locomotion. Specifically, based on behavioural experiments involving brittle stars whose arms were amputated in various ways, we inferred the decentralized control mechanism that self-coordinates the arm motions by constructing a simple mathematical model. We implemented this mechanism in a brittle star-like robot and demonstrated that it adapts to unexpected physical damage within a few seconds by automatically coordinating its undamaged arms similar to brittle stars. Through the above-mentioned process, we found that physical interaction between arms plays an essential role for the resilient inter-arm coordination of brittle stars. This finding will help develop resilient robots that can work in inhospitable environments. Further, it provides insights into the essential mechanism of resilient coordinated motions characteristic of animal locomotion. |
| first_indexed | 2024-12-11T23:14:50Z |
| format | Article |
| id | doaj.art-53d7d7bec3db4a10aee9a8d50b6a42b0 |
| institution | Directory Open Access Journal |
| issn | 2054-5703 |
| language | English |
| last_indexed | 2024-12-11T23:14:50Z |
| publishDate | 2017-01-01 |
| publisher | The Royal Society |
| record_format | Article |
| series | Royal Society Open Science |
| spelling | doaj.art-53d7d7bec3db4a10aee9a8d50b6a42b02022-12-22T00:46:35ZengThe Royal SocietyRoyal Society Open Science2054-57032017-01-0141210.1098/rsos.171200171200A brittle star-like robot capable of immediately adapting to unexpected physical damageTakeshi KanoEiki SatoTatsuya OnoHitoshi AonumaYoshiya MatsuzakaAkio IshiguroA major challenge in robotic design is enabling robots to immediately adapt to unexpected physical damage. However, conventional robots require considerable time (more than several tens of seconds) for adaptation because the process entails high computational costs. To overcome this problem, we focus on a brittle star—a primitive creature with expendable body parts. Brittle stars, most of which have five flexible arms, occasionally lose some of them and promptly coordinate the remaining arms to escape from predators. We adopted a synthetic approach to elucidate the essential mechanism underlying this resilient locomotion. Specifically, based on behavioural experiments involving brittle stars whose arms were amputated in various ways, we inferred the decentralized control mechanism that self-coordinates the arm motions by constructing a simple mathematical model. We implemented this mechanism in a brittle star-like robot and demonstrated that it adapts to unexpected physical damage within a few seconds by automatically coordinating its undamaged arms similar to brittle stars. Through the above-mentioned process, we found that physical interaction between arms plays an essential role for the resilient inter-arm coordination of brittle stars. This finding will help develop resilient robots that can work in inhospitable environments. Further, it provides insights into the essential mechanism of resilient coordinated motions characteristic of animal locomotion.https://royalsocietypublishing.org/doi/pdf/10.1098/rsos.171200decentralized controlresilient robotbrittle star |
| spellingShingle | Takeshi Kano Eiki Sato Tatsuya Ono Hitoshi Aonuma Yoshiya Matsuzaka Akio Ishiguro A brittle star-like robot capable of immediately adapting to unexpected physical damage Royal Society Open Science decentralized control resilient robot brittle star |
| title | A brittle star-like robot capable of immediately adapting to unexpected physical damage |
| title_full | A brittle star-like robot capable of immediately adapting to unexpected physical damage |
| title_fullStr | A brittle star-like robot capable of immediately adapting to unexpected physical damage |
| title_full_unstemmed | A brittle star-like robot capable of immediately adapting to unexpected physical damage |
| title_short | A brittle star-like robot capable of immediately adapting to unexpected physical damage |
| title_sort | brittle star like robot capable of immediately adapting to unexpected physical damage |
| topic | decentralized control resilient robot brittle star |
| url | https://royalsocietypublishing.org/doi/pdf/10.1098/rsos.171200 |
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