Slack-based tunable damping leads to a trade-off between robustness and efficiency in legged locomotion
Abstract Animals run robustly in diverse terrain. This locomotion robustness is puzzling because axon conduction velocity is limited to a few tens of meters per second. If reflex loops deliver sensory information with significant delays, one would expect a destabilizing effect on sensorimotor contro...
| Main Authors: | , , , , |
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
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Nature Portfolio
2023-02-01
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| Series: | Scientific Reports |
| Online Access: | https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-023-30318-3 |
| _version_ | 1797864667768422400 |
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| author | An Mo Fabio Izzi Emre Cemal Gönen Daniel Haeufle Alexander Badri-Spröwitz |
| author_facet | An Mo Fabio Izzi Emre Cemal Gönen Daniel Haeufle Alexander Badri-Spröwitz |
| author_sort | An Mo |
| collection | DOAJ |
| description | Abstract Animals run robustly in diverse terrain. This locomotion robustness is puzzling because axon conduction velocity is limited to a few tens of meters per second. If reflex loops deliver sensory information with significant delays, one would expect a destabilizing effect on sensorimotor control. Hence, an alternative explanation describes a hierarchical structure of low-level adaptive mechanics and high-level sensorimotor control to help mitigate the effects of transmission delays. Motivated by the concept of an adaptive mechanism triggering an immediate response, we developed a tunable physical damper system. Our mechanism combines a tendon with adjustable slackness connected to a physical damper. The slack damper allows adjustment of damping force, onset timing, effective stroke, and energy dissipation. We characterize the slack damper mechanism mounted to a legged robot controlled in open-loop mode. The robot hops vertically and planarly over varying terrains and perturbations. During forward hopping, slack-based damping improves faster perturbation recovery (up to 170%) at higher energetic cost (27%). The tunable slack mechanism auto-engages the damper during perturbations, leading to a perturbation-trigger damping, improving robustness at a minimum energetic cost. With the results from the slack damper mechanism, we propose a new functional interpretation of animals’ redundant muscle tendons as tunable dampers. |
| first_indexed | 2024-04-09T22:56:51Z |
| format | Article |
| id | doaj.art-ff27cbb18ee747b59844d665d4ec025e |
| institution | Directory Open Access Journal |
| issn | 2045-2322 |
| language | English |
| last_indexed | 2024-04-09T22:56:51Z |
| publishDate | 2023-02-01 |
| publisher | Nature Portfolio |
| record_format | Article |
| series | Scientific Reports |
| spelling | doaj.art-ff27cbb18ee747b59844d665d4ec025e2023-03-22T11:16:16ZengNature PortfolioScientific Reports2045-23222023-02-0113111210.1038/s41598-023-30318-3Slack-based tunable damping leads to a trade-off between robustness and efficiency in legged locomotionAn Mo0Fabio Izzi1Emre Cemal Gönen2Daniel Haeufle3Alexander Badri-Spröwitz4Dynamic Locomotion Group, Max Planck Institute for Intelligent SystemsDynamic Locomotion Group, Max Planck Institute for Intelligent SystemsDynamic Locomotion Group, Max Planck Institute for Intelligent SystemsHertie Institute for Clinical Brain Research and Center for Integrative Neuroscience, University of TübingenDynamic Locomotion Group, Max Planck Institute for Intelligent SystemsAbstract Animals run robustly in diverse terrain. This locomotion robustness is puzzling because axon conduction velocity is limited to a few tens of meters per second. If reflex loops deliver sensory information with significant delays, one would expect a destabilizing effect on sensorimotor control. Hence, an alternative explanation describes a hierarchical structure of low-level adaptive mechanics and high-level sensorimotor control to help mitigate the effects of transmission delays. Motivated by the concept of an adaptive mechanism triggering an immediate response, we developed a tunable physical damper system. Our mechanism combines a tendon with adjustable slackness connected to a physical damper. The slack damper allows adjustment of damping force, onset timing, effective stroke, and energy dissipation. We characterize the slack damper mechanism mounted to a legged robot controlled in open-loop mode. The robot hops vertically and planarly over varying terrains and perturbations. During forward hopping, slack-based damping improves faster perturbation recovery (up to 170%) at higher energetic cost (27%). The tunable slack mechanism auto-engages the damper during perturbations, leading to a perturbation-trigger damping, improving robustness at a minimum energetic cost. With the results from the slack damper mechanism, we propose a new functional interpretation of animals’ redundant muscle tendons as tunable dampers.https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-023-30318-3 |
| spellingShingle | An Mo Fabio Izzi Emre Cemal Gönen Daniel Haeufle Alexander Badri-Spröwitz Slack-based tunable damping leads to a trade-off between robustness and efficiency in legged locomotion Scientific Reports |
| title | Slack-based tunable damping leads to a trade-off between robustness and efficiency in legged locomotion |
| title_full | Slack-based tunable damping leads to a trade-off between robustness and efficiency in legged locomotion |
| title_fullStr | Slack-based tunable damping leads to a trade-off between robustness and efficiency in legged locomotion |
| title_full_unstemmed | Slack-based tunable damping leads to a trade-off between robustness and efficiency in legged locomotion |
| title_short | Slack-based tunable damping leads to a trade-off between robustness and efficiency in legged locomotion |
| title_sort | slack based tunable damping leads to a trade off between robustness and efficiency in legged locomotion |
| url | https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-023-30318-3 |
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