The high complexity of the mechanical system and the challenging task of walking itself makes the task of designing the control for legged robots a difficult one. Even if the implementation of parts of the desired functionality, such as posture control or basic swing/stance movement, can be solved by the use of classical engineering approaches, the control of the overall system tends to be very inflexible. In this paper we introduce a new method to combine aspects of classical robot control and behavior-based control. Inspired by the activation patterns in the brain and the spinal cord of animals, we propose a behavior network architecture using special signals such as activity or target rating to influence and coordinate the behaviors. We describe the general concept of a single behavior as well as their interaction within the network. This architecture is tested on the four-legged walking machine, BISAM, and experimental results are presented.
Get full access to this article
View all access options for this article.
References
1.
Albiez, J., Ilg, W., Luksch, T., Berns, K., and Dillmann, R. 2001. Learning reactive posture control on the four-legged walking machine BISAM . In Proc. Int. Conf. on Intelligent Robots and Systems (IROS), Hawaii, USA.
2.
Albiez, J., Luksch, T., Berns, K., and Dillmann, R. 2002a. An activation based behaviour control architecture for walking machines . In Proc. 7th Int. Conf. on Simulation of Adaptive Behaviour SAB, Edinburgh, UK.
3.
Albiez, J., Luksch, T., Berns, K., and Dillmann, R. 2002b. Hierarchical activation-based behaviour architecture for a four-legged walking machine , In Proc. 5th Int. Conf. on Climbing and Walking Robots CLAWAR, Paris, France.
4.
Albiez, J., Luksch, T., Ilg, W., Berns, K., and Dillmann, R. 2002c. Reactive reflex based control for a four-legged walking machine . In Proc. 7th Int. Conf. on Intelligent Autonomous Systems IAS, Los Angeles, CA, USA.
5.
Arkin, R. 2000. Behavior-Based Robotics. MIT Press, Cambridge, MA .
6.
Arkin, R., Kahled, A., Weitzenfeld, A., and Cervantes-Prez, F. 2000. Behavioral models of the praying mantis as a basis for robotic behavior . Journal of Autonomous Systems.
7.
Ayers, J., Witting, J., Olcott, C., McGruer, N., and Massa, D. 2000a. Lobster robots . In Wu, T. and Kato, N., eds, Proc. Int. Symp. on Aqua Biomechanisms.
8.
Ayers, J., Witting, J., Wilbur, C., Zavracky, P., McGruer, N., and Massa, D. 2000b. Biomimetic robots for shallow water mine countermeasures . In Proc. of the Autonomous Vehicles in Mine Countermeasures Symposium.
9.
Berns, K., Albiez, J., Kepplin, V., and Hillenbrand, C. 2001. Control of a six-legged robot using fluidic muscle . In Proc. Int. Conf. on Advanced Robotics, Budapest, Hungary.
10.
Berns, K., Ilg, W., Deck, M., Albiez, J., and Dillmann, R. 1999. Mechanical construction and computer architecture of the four-legged walking machine BISAM . IEEE Transactions on Mechatronics4(1): 1-7 .
11.
Berns, K., Ilg, W., Eckert, M., and Dillmann, R. 1998. Mechanical construction and computer architecture of the four-legged walking machine BISAM . In CLAWAR '98 - 1st Int. Symp., pp. 167-172 .
12.
Brooks, R. 1986. A robust layered control system for a mobile robot . IEEE Journal of Robotics and Automation2(1): 14-23 .
13.
Buehler, M., Cocosco, A., Yamazaki, K., and Battaglia, R. 1999. Stable open loop walking in quadruped robots with stick legs . In Proc. IEEE Int. Conf. on Robotics and Automation, Detroit, pp. 2348-2354 .
14.
Cruse, H., and Bartling, C. 1995. Movement of joint angles in the legs of a walking insect , carausius morosus. Journal of Insect Physiology (41): 761-771 .
15.
Cruse, H., Dürr, V., and Schmitz, J. 2001. Control of a hexapod walking - a decentralized solution based on biological data . In Proc. 4th Int. Conf. on Climbing and Walking Robots (CLAWAR), Karlsruhe, Germany.
16.
Dürr, V., and Krause, A. 2001. The stick insect antenna as a biological paragon for an actively moved tactile probe for obstacle detection . In Proc. 4th Int. Conf. on Climbing and Walking Robots (CLAWAR).
17.
Endo, Y., and Arkin, R. 2001. Implementing Tolman's schematic sowbug: Behaviour-based robotics in the 1930s . In Proc. IEEE Int. Conf. on Robotics and Autonomous Systems.
18.
Espenschied, K., Quinn, R., Chiel, H., and Beer, R. 1996. Biologically-based distributed control and local reflexes to improve rough terrain locomotion in a hexapod robot . Robotics and Autonomous Systems18: 59-64 .
19.
Ferrell, C. 1995. Global Behavior Via Cooperative Local Control Vol. 2, pp. 105-125.
20.
Gassmann, K.U.B. and Scholl, K. B. 2001. Locomotion of Lauron III in rough terrain . In Proc. Int. Conf. on Advanced Intelligent Mechatronics, Como, Italy.
21.
Gienger, M., Löffler, K., and Pfeiffer, F. 2001. In Proc. IEEE Int. Conf. on Robotics and Automation (ICRA).
22.
Hosoda, K., Miyashita, T., and Asada, M. 2000. Emergence of quadruped walk by a combination of reflexes . In Proc. Int. Symp. on adaptive Motion of Animals and Machines, Montreal.
23.
Ilg, W. 2001. Eine biologisch motivierte adaptive Bewegungssteuerung für eine vierbeinige Laufmaschine. Infix-Verlag. Dissertationsschrift (in German).
24.
Ilg, W., Albiez, J., and Jedele, H. 1998a. A biologically inspired adaptive control architecture based on neural networks for a four-legged walking machine . In Proc. 8th Int. Conf. on Artificial Neural Networks, Skoevde, Sweden, pp. 455-460 .
25.
Ilg, W., Berns, K., Jedele, H., Albiez, J., Dillmann, R., Fischer, M., Witte, H., Biltzinger, J., Lehmann, R., and Schilling, N. 1998b. BISAM: From small mammals to a four legged walking machine . In Proc. 5th Int. Conf. on Simulation of Adaptive Behaviour, Zurich, pp. 400-407 .
26.
Ilg, W., and Scholl, K.-U. 1998. Cqran: Continuous q-learning resource allocation network. towards reinforcement learning with multi-dimensional continuous action spaces . In Proc. 8th Int. Conf. on Artificial Neural Networks, Skoevde, Sweden, pp. 455-460 .
27.
Kandel, E., Schwartz, J., and Jessell, T. M. 2000. Principles of Neural Science, 4th edn, McGraw-Hill, New York .
28.
Kimura, H. and Fukuoka, Y. 2000. Biologically inspired dynamic walking on irregular terrain - adaptation at spinal cord and brain stem. In Int. Symp. on Adaptive Motion of Animals and Machines, Montreal .
29.
Kimura, H., Fukuoka, Y., Hada, Y., and Takase, K. 2001. Three-dimensional adaptive dynamic walking of a quadruped robot by using neural system model . In Proc. 4th Int. Conf. on Climbing and Walking Robots (CLAWAR), FZI, Karlsruhe, Germany.
30.
Kimura, H., Shimoyama, I., and Miura, H. 1990. Dynamics in the dynamic walk of a quadruped robot . Advanced Robotics4(3): 283-301 .
31.
Löffler, K., Gienger, M., and Pfeiffer, F. 2001. Simulation and control of a biped jogging robot. In Proc. 4th Int. Conf. on Climbing and Walking Robots (CLAWAR).
32.
Likhachev, M., and Arkin, R. 2000. Robotic comfort zones . In Proc. SPIE: Sensor Fusion and Decentralized Control in Robotic Systems4196: 27-41 .
33.
Likhachev, M., and Arkin, R. 2001. Spatio-temporal casebased reasoning for behavioral selection. In Proc. IEEE Int. Conf. on Robotics and Automation (ICRA), pp. 1627-1634.
34.
Mataric, M. J. 1997. Behavior-based control: Examples from navigation, learning, and group behavior . Journal of Experimental and Theoretical Artificial Intelligence, Special issue on Software Architectures for Physical Agents, 9(2-3): 323-336 .
35.
Matsumoto, O., Ilg, W., Berns, K., and Dillmann, R. 2000. Dynamical stable control of the four-legged walking machine BISAM in trot motion using force sensors. In Intelligent Autonomous Systems 6.
36.
Pearson, K. 1995. Proprioceptive regulation of locomotion . Current Opinions in Neurobiology5(6): 768-791 .
37.
Pirajanian, P. 1999. Behaviour coordination mechanisms—state of the art. Technical Report IRIS-99-375, Institute for Robotics and Intelligent Systems, School of Engineering, University of Southern California.
38.
Raibert, M. H. 1986. Legged Robots That Balance. MIT Press, Cambridge, MA .
39.
Vukobratovic, M., Borovac, B., Surla, D., and Stokic, D. 1990. Biped Locomotion. Springer-Verlag, Berlin .
40.
Witte, H., Hackert, R., Fischer, M. S., Ilg, W., Albiez, J., Dillmann, R., and Seyfarth, A. 2001a. Design criteria for the leg of a walking machine derived by biological inspiration from quadruped mammals . In Proc. 4th Int. Conf. on Climbing and Walking Robots (CLAWAR), Karlsruhe, Germany.
41.
Witte, H., Hackert, R., Lilje, K., Schilling, N., Voges, D., Klauer, G., Ilg, W., Albiez, J., Seyfarth, A., Germann, D., Hiller, M., Dillmann, R., and Fischer, M. 2001b. Transfer of biological principles into the construction of quadruped walking machines . In Proc. 2nd Int. Workshop on Robot Motion And Control, Bukowy Dworek, Poland.
42.
Yoneda, K., and Hirose, S. 1992. Dynamic and static fusion gait of a quadruped walking vehicle on a winding path . In Proc. IEEE/RSJ Int. Conf. on Intelligent Robots and Systems, Nizza, pp. 143-148 .
