Neuromorphic walking gait control

IEEE Trans Neural Netw. 2006 Mar;17(2):496-508. doi: 10.1109/TNN.2005.863454.

Abstract

We present a neuromorphic pattern generator for controlling the walking gaits of four-legged robots which is inspired by central pattern generators found in the nervous system and which is implemented as a very large scale integrated (VLSI) chip. The chip contains oscillator circuits that mimic the output of motor neurons in a strongly simplified way. We show that four coupled oscillators can produce rhythmic patterns with phase relationships that are appropriate to generate all four-legged animal walking gaits. These phase relationships together with frequency and duty cycle of the oscillators determine the walking behavior of a robot driven by the chip, and they depend on a small set of stationary bias voltages. We give analytic expressions for these dependencies. This chip reduces the complex, dynamic inter-leg control problem associated with walking gait generation to the problem of setting a few stationary parameters. It provides a compact and low power solution for walking gait control in robots.

Publication types

  • Evaluation Study

MeSH terms

  • Animals
  • Artificial Intelligence*
  • Biological Clocks / physiology*
  • Biomimetics / methods*
  • Computer Simulation
  • Feedback / physiology
  • Gait / physiology*
  • Humans
  • Leg / physiology*
  • Models, Biological*
  • Robotics / methods*
  • Walking / physiology*