Abstract
We discuss and demonstrate how an approach used by plants can be adapted as a useful algorithm for motion planning in robotics. Specifically, we review the process of circumnutation, which is used by numerous plants, and particularly climbing vines, to explore and contact their environments. We show how circumnutation can be adapted to generate practical algorithms for motion planning for continuum tendril robots. The analysis and discussion is supported by experimental results using a robot tendril. Using circumnutation, performance of the robot is enhanced by efficiently enabling environmental contact, which helps guide and stabilize the robot.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
Similar content being viewed by others
References
Trivedi, D., Rahn, C.D., Kier, W.M., Walker, I.D.: Soft robotics: biological inspiration, state of the art, and future research. Appl. Bionics Biomech. 5(2), 99–117 (2008)
Meyer, J.-A., Guillot, A.: Biologically inspired robots, Chap. 60. In: Siciliano, B., Khatib, O. (eds.) Springer Handbook of Robotics, pp. 1395–1418. Springer, Berlin (2008)
Moravec, H.: Mind Children: The Future of Robot and Human Intelligence. Harvard University Press, Cambridge (1988)
Martone, P.T., Boller, M., Burgert, I., Dumais, J., Edwards, J., Mach, K., Rowe, N., Rueggeberg, M., Seidel, R., Speck, T.: Mechanics without muscle: biomechanical inspiration from the plant world. Integr. Comp. Biol. 50(5), 888–907 (2010)
Robinson, G., Davies, J.B.C.: Continuum robots - a state of the art. In: Proceedings of IEEE International Conference on Robotics and Automation, Detroit, Michigan, pp. 2849–2854 (1999)
Mazzolai, B., Beccai, L., Mattoli, V.: Plants as model in biomimetics and biorobotics: new perspectives. Front. Bioeng. Biotechnol. 2, 1–5 (2014). doi:10.3389/fbioe.2014.00002
Sadeghi, A., Tonazzini, A., Popova, I., Mazzolai, B.: Robotic mechanism for soil penetration inspired by plant root. In: Proceedings of IEEE International Conference on Robotics and Automation, Karlsruhe, Germany, pp. 3457–3462 (2013)
Goriely, A., Neukirch, S.: Mechanics of climbing and attachment in twining plants. Phys. Rev. Lett. 97(18), 1–4 (2006)
Putz, F.E., Mooney, H.A.: The Biology of Vines. Cambridge University Press, New York (1991)
Darwin, C.: The Movements and Habits of Climbing Plants. John Murray, London (1875)
Isnard, S., Silk, W.K.: Moving with climbing plants from charles Darwin’s time into the 21st century. Am. J. Bot. 96(7), 1205–1221 (2009)
Walker, I.D.: Continuous backbone continuum robot manipulators: a review. ISRN Robot. 1–19 (2013)
Webster III, R.J., Jones, B.A.: Design and kinematic modeling of constant curvature continuum robots: a review. Int. J. Robot. Res. 29(13), 1661–1683 (2010)
Burgner-Kars, J., Rucker, D.C., Choset, H.: Continuum robots for medical ap-plications: a survey. IEEE Trans. Robot. 31(6), 1261–1280 (2015)
Walker, I.D.: Robot strings: long, thin continuum robots. In: Proceedings IEEE Aerospace Conference, Big Sky, MT, pp. 1–12 (2013)
Mehling, J.S., Diftler, M.A., Chu, M., Valvo, M.: A minimally invasive tendril robot for in-space inspection. In: Proceedings of BioRobotics 2006 Conference, pp. 690–695 (2006)
Tonapi, M., Godage, I.S., Vijaykumar, A.M., Walker, I.D.: Spatial kinematic modeling of a long and thin continuum robotic cable. In: Proceedings IEEE International Conference on Robotics and Automation, Seattle, WA, pp. 3755–3761 (2015)
Wooten, M.B., Walker, I.D.: A novel vine-like robot for in-orbit inspection. In: Proceedings of 45th International Conference on Environmental Systems, Bellevue, WA, pp. 1–11 (2015)
Jones, B.A., Walker, I.D.: Kinematics for multisection continuum robots. IEEE Trans. Robot. 22(1), 43–55 (2006)
Li, J., Teng, Z., Xiao, J., Kapadia, A., Bartow, A., Walker, I.D.: Autonomous continuum grasping. In: Proceedings of IEEE/RSJ International Conference on Intelligent Robots and Systems, Tokyo, Japan, pp. 4569–4576 (2013)
Buckingham, R.: Snake arm robots. Ind. Robot Int. J. 29(3), 242–245 (2002)
Truong-Thinh, N., Ngoc-Phuong, N.: Design and development of a continuum structure for robotic flower. In: Proceeding of IEEE Conference on Robotics and Bi-omimetics, Phuket, Thailand, pp. 118–123 (2011)
Brown, A.H.: Circumnutations from darwin to space flights. Plant Physiol. 101, 345–348 (1993)
Niklas, K.J., Spatz, H.-C.: Plant Physics. University of Chicago Press, Chicago (2012)
Acknowledgments
This work is supported in part by the U.S. National Science Foundation under grant IIS-1527165, and in part by NASA under contract NNX12AM01G.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2016 Springer International Publishing Switzerland
About this paper
Cite this paper
Wooten, M.B., Walker, I.D. (2016). Circumnutation: From Plants to Robots. In: Tuci, E., Giagkos, A., Wilson, M., Hallam, J. (eds) From Animals to Animats 14. SAB 2016. Lecture Notes in Computer Science(), vol 9825. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-43488-9_1
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-43488-9_1
Published:
Publisher Name: Springer, Cham
Print ISBN: 978-3-319-43487-2
Online ISBN: 978-3-319-43488-9
eBook Packages: Computer ScienceComputer Science (R0)