EXCITABLE CHEMICAL MEDIUM CONTROLLER FOR A ROBOTIC HAND: CLOSED-LOOP EXPERIMENTS

Abstract

We discuss the experimental implementation of a chemical controller for a robotic hand. In the present case study, we have designed a closed system where a Belousov–Zhabotinsky (BZ) thin layer chemical reactor was linked to the robotic hand via an array of photo-sensors and the fingers of the hand were able to stimulate the excitation dynamics in the BZ medium via the local addition of an activator species. A principal working loop of the chemo-robotic system is that oxidation wave fronts traveling in the medium are detected by photo-sensors and cause (via a microcontroller) the fingers of the hand to bend. When a finger bends, it is set up to apply a small quantity of colloid silver to the reaction and thus causes an additional excitation wave. The traveling and interacting waves stimulate further movements of the fingers and patterns of behavior are observed. These patterns of behavior have been modeled using a cellular automaton. In the paper, we offer an experimental set-up, including algorithms and interfacing, for an experimental chemical robotic hand controller, which contributes to the fields of nonclassical computation, nonlinear physics, and unconventional robotics.