Biorobotics Laboratory BioRob

Design and simulation of locomotion of self-organising modular robots for adaptive furniture
Rafael Arco Arredondo - Master Project 2005-2006
Supervisor: Prof. Auke Jan Ijspeert

Abstract

The Biologically Inspired Robotics Group (BIRG) at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology Lausanne (EPFL) is carrying out a project on Modular Robotics for the future Learning Centre of the EPFL: Roombots, Modular Robotics for adaptive and self-organising furniture. It intends to design modular robots for furniture with ability for locomotion, self-assembling, self-organisation, self-reconfiguration and self-repairing.

This Master Project covers the first stage of the Roombots project: the design of the external structure of the prototypes of the modules as well as the simulation of locomotion of some multi-unit robots.

Documents

Report of the project (PDF, 3.7 MB)
Slides of the presentation (without videos) (PDF, 1.5 MB)

Module design

Two modules were explored: the wheeled module and the universal joint module. Finally, the wheeled module was chosen for the muti-unit structures.

Multi-unit structures

Several pieces of furniture were designed: a stool, a chair, a table and a sofa.

Control of locomotion

Control of locomotion with central pattern generators (CPGs) was implemented in the multi-unit robots. The Matsuoka oscillator was the building block for the CPGs.

Several strategies were used to move the multi-unit structures: several quadrupedal gaits with open loop, control of direction by modulation of the amplitude and rotation of wheels, sensory feedback to adapt to the terrain, rolling locomotion and online optimisation of locomotion.

Videos

(compressed with MPEG-4 format, can be viewed with the libavcodec library or the ffdshow decoder, among others)

Trotting gait (2.8 MB)
Walking gait (2.6 MB)
Bounding gait (1.6 MB)
Transition from a trotting gait to a bounding gait (3.1 MB)
Rolling locomotion (1.0 MB)
Control of direction by modulation of amplitude (2.6 MB)
Control of direction by rotation of wheels (2.7 MB)

Locomotion on irregular surfaces (without feedback):
Walking on a laterally inclined slope (2.7 MB)
Walking on a laterally inclined slope (2.7 MB)
Attempting to overcome a step (2.7 MB)

Locomotion on irregular surfaces (with feedback):
Walking on a laterally inclined slope (2.7 MB)
Walking on a laterally inclined slope (2.8 MB)
Overcoming a step (3.0 MB)

Online optimisation of locomotion (4.7 MB)

Links

Modular Robotics hardware at BIRG
Adaptive locomotion on Modular Robotics at BIRG