CPG based locomotion control of pitch-yaw connecting modular self-reconfigurable robots

Abstract

Self-reconfiguration (SR) robots can take any form by connecting the modules in different configurations. The configurations formed by the modules have many degrees of freedom; therefore, designing a control method for whole body locomotion is more difficult than for the conventional robots. This paper utilizes central pattern generators (CPGs). Each neural oscillator of the network of CPGs works as a distributed joint controller of each module. Three kinds of snake-like configurations and their locomotion gaits have been summarized. Pitch-Yaw connecting snake-like configuration has the most flexibility, which is our research emphasis. Four moving gaits of the Pitch-Yaw have been controlled by the network of the CPG oscillators successfully, that is: worming, side winding, rolling and turning. All the locomotions have been simulated in ADAMS, the simulation experiment has verified the control method of CPGs we designed.