A homogenous CPG-network for multimode locomotion control of modular self-reconfigurable robot

Abstract

A self-reconfigurable (SR) robot is a cellular robot that is capable of adapting its shape and functions to changing environments and demands, and the "cellular" in which can rearrange their mutual mechanical connection to change the robot's outward features. This paper first introduces a new self-reconfigurable robotic system UBot. For the variability characteristics of the self-reconfigurable system, combined with the biological central pattern generator (CPG), a locomotion control method has been proposed which can control multimode locomotion for different configurations through the self-excited oscillation via different coupled modes of CPG network. The oscillators in the CPG network are homogenous with the same models and parameters, only the connection relations change for different configurations. The simulation and experiment of quadruped walking and snake-type wiggling controlled by CPG network have been successfully completed on the platform of UBot modular self-reconfigurable system.