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Adaptive splitbelt treadmill walking of a biped robot using nonlinear oscillators with phase resetting

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Abstract

To investigate the adaptability of a biped robot controlled by nonlinear oscillators with phase resetting based on central pattern generators, we examined the walking behavior of a biped robot on a splitbelt treadmill that has two parallel belts controlled independently. In an experiment, we demonstrated the dynamic interactions among the robot mechanical system, the oscillator control system, and the environment. The robot produced stable walking on the splitbelt treadmill at various belt speeds without changing the control strategy and parameters, despite a large discrepancy between the belt speeds. This is due to modulation of the locomotor rhythm and its phase through the phase resetting mechanism, which induces the relative phase between leg movements to shift from antiphase, and causes the duty factors to be autonomously modulated depending on the speed discrepancy between the belts. Such shifts of the relative phase and modulations of the duty factors are observed during human splitbelt treadmill walking. Clarifying the mechanisms producing such adaptive splitbelt treadmill walking will lead to a better understanding of the phase resetting mechanism in the generation of adaptive locomotion in biological systems and consequently to a guiding principle for designing control systems for legged robots.

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Acknowledgments

The authors thank Kenji Sakaida for his help with the measurement of human splitbelt treadmill walking. This paper is supported in part by a Grant-in-Aid for Scientific Research (B) No. 23360111 and a Grant-in-Aid for Creative Scientific Research No. 19GS0208 from the Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science, and Technology of Japan.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Aeronautics and Astronautics, Graduate School of Engineering, Kyoto University, Kyoto daigaku-Katsura, Nishikyo-ku, Kyoto, 615-8540, Japan

    Soichiro Fujiki, Shinya Aoi, Tsuyoshi Yamashita & Kei Senda

  2. Department of Energy and Mechanical Engineering, Faculty of Science and Engineering, Doshisha University, 1-3 Tatara, Miyakodani, Kyotanabe, Kyoto, 610-0394, Japan

    Tetsuro Funato, Nozomi Tomita & Kazuo Tsuchiya

  3. JST, CREST, 5 Sanbancho, Chiyoda-ku, Tokyo, 102-0075, Japan

    Shinya Aoi, Tetsuro Funato, Nozomi Tomita & Kazuo Tsuchiya

Authors
  1. Soichiro Fujiki
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  2. Shinya Aoi
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  3. Tsuyoshi Yamashita
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  4. Tetsuro Funato
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  5. Nozomi Tomita
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  7. Kazuo Tsuchiya
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Correspondence to Shinya Aoi.

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Fujiki, S., Aoi, S., Yamashita, T. et al. Adaptive splitbelt treadmill walking of a biped robot using nonlinear oscillators with phase resetting. Auton Robot 35, 15–26 (2013). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10514-013-9331-6

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