Abstract
The Matsuoka neural oscillator can potentially be employed as the central pattern generator (CPG) for a chewing robot, in order to generate and adapt rhythmic actuations in response to sensory feedback. In this chapter a single Matsuoka oscillator of two neurons is applied to two phase-locked muscles (e.g. masseter and digastric muscles) or for a single robotic joint. Three graphical user interfaces (GUIs) were developed to help design and tune the oscillator. A case study is presented involving a jaw, driven by a couple of opening and closing muscles and commanded by motoneurons. The force of the muscles was described using a nonlinear Hill model while the motoneuron for muscle activities was modelled using the oscillator. Simulations were performed to show the oscillator’s ability to generate and adapt its rhythmic outputs with respect to chewing without food (i.e. EMG only for rhythmic muscle activities), with foods (i.e. EMG for rhythmic and additional muscle activities) and with crushable foods (to see how quickly the oscillator to reduce its force commands in order not to damage the teeth). Furthermore, a hardware-in-the-loop simulation system is presented to validate this neural controlling algorithm, where the chewing robot is actuated by two fluidic muscles commanded by the Matsuoka oscillator. The robot had a fixed upper jaw and actuated lower jaw, with position and force sensors used to measure jaw movements and the food resistance. The oscillator, simulated in Matlab, was interfaced to the control valves of the fluidic muscles via a sensory I/O card. The control of the robot is achieved via Simulink with the real-time windows library. Comprehensive experiments were conducted and the results interpreted to show the distinct dynamic behaviours of the neural controlling algorithm.
The first half of this chapter is reprinted from Xu WL, Fang FC, Bronlund JE and Potgieter J (2009) Generation of rhythmic and voluntary patterns of mastication using Matsuoka oscillator for a humanoid chewing robot. Mechatronics. 19:205-217, with permission from Elservier.
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Xu, W., Bronlund, J.E. (2010). Neural Control of a Mastication Robot. In: Mastication Robots. Studies in Computational Intelligence, vol 290. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-540-93903-0_9
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-540-93903-0_9
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