Octopus inspired walking robot: Design, control and experimental validation

This paper presents an Octopus inspired walking robot with pneumatic muscle actuator (PMA) driven continuum arms. Each arm is made up of 4 longitudinally arranged PMAs, consistent with octopus arm anatomy. We first present the design and construction of a single continuum arm followed by its modeling and experimental validation. The design of the walking robot is then presented followed by details of extended dynamic model describing the full walking robot with four arms. Basic control architecture is introduced for the robot to achieve walking motion and experimental results analyzed. Initial results show good agreement between the experimental results and simulation results.

[1]  Ian D. Walker,et al.  Kinematics and the Implementation of an Elephant's Trunk Manipulator and Other Continuum Style Robots , 2003, J. Field Robotics.

[2]  広瀬 茂男,et al.  Biologically inspired robots : snake-like locomotors and manipulators , 1993 .

[3]  Russell H. Taylor,et al.  A dexterous system for laryngeal surgery , 2004, IEEE International Conference on Robotics and Automation, 2004. Proceedings. ICRA '04. 2004.

[4]  Darwin G. Caldwell,et al.  Braid Effects on Contractile Range and Friction Modeling in Pneumatic Muscle Actuators , 2006, Int. J. Robotics Res..

[5]  Ching-Ping Chou,et al.  Static and dynamic characteristics of McKibben pneumatic artificial muscles , 1994, Proceedings of the 1994 IEEE International Conference on Robotics and Automation.

[6]  Ian D. Walker,et al.  Large deflection dynamics and control for planar continuum robots , 2001 .

[7]  B. Hochner,et al.  Control of Octopus Arm Extension by a Peripheral Motor Program , 2001, Science.

[8]  Shigeo Hirose,et al.  Biologically Inspired Robots: Snake-Like Locomotors and Manipulators , 1993 .

[9]  Howie Choset,et al.  A mobile hyper redundant mechanism for search and rescue tasks , 2003, Proceedings 2003 IEEE/RSJ International Conference on Intelligent Robots and Systems (IROS 2003) (Cat. No.03CH37453).

[10]  Ian D. Walker,et al.  Field trials and testing of the OctArm continuum manipulator , 2006, Proceedings 2006 IEEE International Conference on Robotics and Automation, 2006. ICRA 2006..

[11]  Adam Morecki,et al.  Elephant trunk type elastic manipulator - a tool for bulk and liquid materials transportation , 1999, Robotica.

[12]  Darwin G. Caldwell,et al.  Control architecture for robots with continuum arms inspired by octopus vulgaris neurophysiology , 2012, 2012 IEEE International Conference on Robotics and Automation.

[13]  Ian D. Walker,et al.  Dynamic Modelling for Planar Extensible Continuum Robot Manipulators , 2007, Proceedings 2007 IEEE International Conference on Robotics and Automation.

[14]  Hideyuki Tsukagoshi,et al.  Active Hose: an artificial elephant's nose with maneuverability for rescue operation , 2001, Proceedings 2001 ICRA. IEEE International Conference on Robotics and Automation (Cat. No.01CH37164).

[15]  Darwin G. Caldwell,et al.  Pneumatic muscle actuated continuum arms: Modelling and experimental assessment , 2012, 2012 IEEE International Conference on Robotics and Automation.

[16]  Darwin G. Caldwell,et al.  A 3D dynamic model for continuum robots inspired by an octopus arm , 2011, 2011 IEEE International Conference on Robotics and Automation.

[17]  Ian D. Walker,et al.  Design and implementation of a multi-section continuum robot: Air-Octor , 2005, 2005 IEEE/RSJ International Conference on Intelligent Robots and Systems.

[18]  W. Kier,et al.  Tongues, tentacles and trunks: the biomechanics of movement in muscular‐hydrostats , 1985 .

[19]  Blake Hannaford,et al.  Measurement and modeling of McKibben pneumatic artificial muscles , 1996, IEEE Trans. Robotics Autom..

[20]  Darwin G. Caldwell,et al.  Locomotion with continuum limbs , 2012, 2012 IEEE/RSJ International Conference on Intelligent Robots and Systems.

[21]  I. D. Walker,et al.  A novel approach to robotic climbing using continuum appendages in in-situ exploration , 2012, 2012 IEEE Aerospace Conference.