CNIC: US-Belgium Engineering Planning Visit: Simplified Models for Bio-inspired Actuators

该奖项为催化新的国际合作（CNIC）提供支持，由首席研究员，塔尔萨大学的Joshua Schultz和他的美国学生到布鲁塞尔进行项目开发访问，以启动与实际动态系统（在工程中）控制的同行的工作，目标是确定最快速，最容易地生成由模块化单元组成的类肌肉驱动器的降阶模型的方法。比利时合作伙伴，布鲁塞尔自由大学的Bram Vanderborght，在可变阻抗驱动器方面拥有专业知识，可以补充PI在分层配置细胞驱动方面的优势。两位研究者都对招募的生物学启发控制范式感兴趣，其中细胞结构和激活模式引起可变阻抗行为和复杂的系统动力学。同时，研究人员打算计划分析和实验，以阐明由较小的模块化子执行器组成的软“细胞”执行器的基本系统动力学原理。合作伙伴将使用平衡实现理论和仿真来确定这些类型的系统应该如何配置。初步结果将为未来一系列分析和数值系统动力学研究和实验指明下一步，这些研究和实验将成为NSF在传感器、动力学和控制方面的后续提案的重点。如果成功，这些方法可能用于设计具有损伤容忍度的机器人，并且需要较少数量的部件来制造和维护。新的合作有望促进正在进行的联合研究以及调查合规设备和机制动力学的想法。美国研究生和本科生在海外工作的参与提供了宝贵的早期职业国际研究经验。此外，P.I.计划将这项初步研究的原理整合到塔尔萨大学（University of Tulsa）的一门新课程中，以生物启发的机器人技术为基础，以产生更广泛的影响。

This award for Catalyzing New International Collaborations (CNIC) supports a project development visit to Brussels by the principal investigator, Joshua Schultz of the University of Tulsa, and his U.S. students to initiate work with counterparts on the control of real dynamic systems (in engineering) with the goal of determining the most methods that quickly and easily produce a reduced-order model for muscle-like actuators composed of modular units. The Belgian partner, Bram Vanderborght at the Vrije Universiteit Brussels, has expertise in variable impedance actuators that compliments the PI's in hierarchially configured cellular actuation. Both investigators are interested in the biologically inspired control paradigm of recruitment in which the cellular structure and activation patterns give rise to variable impedance behavior and complex system dynamics. Together, the researchers intend to plan analysis and experiments to elucidate basic system dynamics principles of soft "cellular" actuators composed of smaller modular sub-actuators. The partners will approach this using balanced realization theory and simulation to determine how these types of systems should be configured. Preliminary results should point to next steps for a future series of analytical and numerical system dynamics studies and experiments that become the focus of a follow-on NSF proposal in Sensors, Dynamics and Control. If successful, these methods may be used to design robots that are damage tolerant and require fewer numbers of parts to build and maintain.The new collaboration is expected to foster on-going joint research as well as ideas for investigating compliant devices and mechanism dynamics. The participation of U.S. graduate and undergraduate students in the work abroad offers valuable early career international research experience. Furthermore, the P.I. plans to integrate the principles arising from this preliminary research into a new course at the University of Tulsa on foundations of biologically inspired robotics, for broader impact.