Biologically Inspired Motion Planning in Robotics

Walking machines are special types of mobile robots realizing discrete locomotion, where the motion path is not continuous but is separated to the footprints. Most walking machines in their structure take some biological systems as templates, with two, four or six legs. The level of autonomy of machine actions (intelligence) is determined by the properties of mechanical structure and abilities of the control system. In animals the complexity of the nervous system is related to the complexity of the body build — the more complex is the body in the biological sense the more advanced control it needs. But this does not mean that the increase in autonomy of walking robots can be obtained only by increasing the complexity of mechanics and control. In the animal world the body structure matches the living conditions. Simple animals, with primitive bodies and control centers can survive well due to the proper spontaneous reactions (arising directly from an impulse, without reasoning). Transferring this observation into technical world it means that the mechanical structure of walking devices must be properly chosen to the assumed working conditions and the control system with sensors and software must be dedicated to the task fulfilled by the device.