Limit Cycle Control for Soft, Caterpillar-Inspired Robots

这项工作的长期目标是开发变革性技术，用于移动的软机器人的驱动和控制，用于具有挑战性的现场应用，如救灾。 该项目是一个创新的，基于反馈的解决方案，用于增强软机器人的移动性。 这种解决方案的灵感来自于毛虫Manduca sexta，一种非凡的多节无脊椎动物，在许多地形中爬行，攀爬和挖掘。 我们的方法的目的是控制毛毛虫一样，周期性运动的流体填充软机器人，其中机器人的可变形结构使得它很难感测或模型的身体配置上的飞行。 本研究有两个具体的研究目标。 目标1将制定一个控制设计方法，用于通过激励持续振荡（例如，极限环）。 目标2将量化穴居毛虫的体内运动学，以确定它们如何适应丰富的触觉刺激模式的步态。 将开发新的教育机会，以促进工程和生物学生的跨学科控制教学。软机器人在提高机动性方面具有巨大潜力，例如，通过挖掘碎片或通过传统刚性机器人无法到达的复杂地形进行机动。 研究将通过与团队的教学活动相结合产生更广泛的影响。 软机器人技术的重大进展可能来自系统生物学和控制工程之间的接口所获得的见解。 因此，现有的课程将被修改，介绍本科生物学家工程控制，并介绍研究生工程师神经生物学。

The long-term goal of this work is to develop transformative technologies for the actuation and control of mobile, soft robots in challenging field applications, such as disaster relief. This project is an innovative, feedback-based solution for enhancing soft-robot mobility. This solution is inspired by the caterpillar Manduca sexta, a remarkable, multi-segmented invertebrate that crawls, climbs and burrows in many terrains. Our approach is aimed at controlling the caterpillar-like, periodic movements of a fluid-filled soft robot, in which the robot's deformable structure makes it difficult to sense or model body configuration on-the-fly. The research has two specific research aims. Aim 1 will formulate a control design method for generating caterpillar-like gaits by exciting sustained oscillations (e.g., limit cycles) within a deformable, fluid-filled system. Aim 2 will quantify the in vivo kinematics of burrowing caterpillars to identify how they adapt their gait in response to rich patterns of tactile stimuli. New educational opportunities will be developed to foster interdisciplinary controls teaching for engineering and biology students.Soft robots offer tremendous potential to enhance mobility, for example, by burrowing through debris or maneuvering through complex terrain not accessible to conventional rigid robots. The research will have a broader impact through its integration with the team's teaching activities. Major advances in soft robot technology are likely to come from insights gained at the interface between systems biology and controls engineering. Hence, existing courses will be modified to introduce undergraduate biologists to engineering control, and to introduce graduate engineers to neurobiology.