Robotic and Biological Interlimb Coordination

Through many cycles of evolutionary selection pressure, vertebrates and invertebrates have acquired sophisticated locomotor skills, exhibiting resilient and flexible locomotion in response to changes in body morphology, environment, and context by coordinating leg movements, i.e., inter-limb coordination. Given the limited number of neurons that comprise a nervous system, e.g., insects have only approximately 10^5 to 10^6 neurons in their nervous system, we must consider the potential role of not only intrinsic neural circuits in adaptations against unpredictable situations, but also that of the sensory feedback mechanisms that reflect body properties and physical interactions with the environment. Understanding the inter-limb coordination mechanism is both essential for understanding the locomotive mechanism in legged animals and useful for establishing design principles for legged robots that can reproduce flexible and efficient locomotion resembling that exhibited in animals. In this talk, I will present our works on robotic and biological interlimb coordination and discuss the future directions towards our goals.

Dr. Dai Owaki