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、软机器人在具有挑战性的领域应用中的驱动和控制，例如救灾。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。这个解决方案的灵感来自于毛毛虫Manduca sexta，一种非凡的多节段无脊椎动物，在许多地形上爬行、攀爬和挖洞。我们的方法旨在控制充满流体的软机器人的类似毛毛虫的周期性运动，在这种运动中，机器人的可变形结构使得很难在飞行中感知或建模身体配置。这项研究有两个具体的研究目的。目标1将制定一种控制设计方法，通过在可变形的充液系统中激发持续振荡(例如，极限环)来产生类似毛毛虫的步态。目标2将对穴居毛虫的体内运动学进行量化，以确定它们如何适应丰富的触觉刺激模式。将开发新的教育机会，以促进工程和生物专业学生的跨学科控制教学。软体机器人在增强机动性方面具有巨大的潜力，例如，通过在废墟中挖掘洞穴或在传统刚性机器人无法到达的复杂地形中进行机动。通过与团队教学活动的整合，研究将产生更广泛的影响。软机器人技术的重大进步可能来自于系统生物学和控制工程之间的接口所获得的洞察力。因此，现有的课程将被修改，以向本科生生物学家介绍工程控制，并向研究生工程师介绍神经生物学。

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.