Bioinspiration and Robotics: Walking and Climbing Robots Bioinspiration and Robotics: Walking and Climbing Robots Edited by Maki K. Habib I-Tech IV Published by Advanced Robotic Systems International and I-Tech I-Tech Education and Publishing Vienna Austria Abstracting and non-profit use of the material is permitted with credit to the source. Statements and opinions expressed in the chapters are these of the individual contributors and not necessarily those of the editors or publisher. No responsibility is accepted for the accuracy of information contained in the published articles. Publisher assumes no responsibility liability for any damage or injury to persons or property arising out of the use of any materials, instructions, methods or ideas contained inside. After this work has been published by the I-Tech Education and Publishing, authors have the right to repub- lish it, in whole or part, in any publication of which they are an author or editor, and the make other personal use of the work. © 2007 I-Tech Education and Publishing www.ars-journal.com Additional copies can be obtained from: publication@ars-journal.com First published September 2007 Printed in Croatia A catalogue record for this book is available from the Austrian Library. Bioinspiration and Robotics: Walking and Climbing Robots, Edited by Maki K. Habib p. cm. ISBN 978-3-902613-15-8 1. Walking Robots. 2. Climbing Robots. I. Maki K. Habib V Preface A large number of robots have been developed, and researchers continue to design new robots with greater capabilities to perform more challenging and comprehen- sive tasks. Between the 60s and end of 80s, most robot applications were related to industries and manufacturing, such as assembly, welding, painting, material han- dling, packaging, etc. However, the state-of-the-art in micro-technology, micro- processors, sensor technology, smart materials, signal processing and computing technologies, information and communication technologies, navigation technol- ogy, and the biological inspiration in developing learning and decision-making paradigms, MEMs, etc. have raised the demand for innovative solutions targeting new areas of potential applications. This led to breakthrough in the invention of a new generation of robots called service robots. The new types of robots aim to achieve high level of intelligence, functionality, modularity, flexibility, adaptabil- ity, mobility, intractability, and efficiency to perform wide range of tasks in com- plex and hazardous environment, and to provide and perform services of various kinds to human users and society. Service robots are manipulative and dexterous, and have the capability to interact with human, perform tasks autonomously, semi-autonomously (multi modes operation), and they are portable. Crucial pre- requisites for performing services are safety, mobility, and autonomy supported by strong sensory perception. Wide range of applications can be covered by service robots, such as in agriculture & harvesting, healthcare/rehabilitation, cleaning (house, public, industry), construction, humanitarian demining, entertainment, fire fighting, hobby/leisure, hotel/restaurant, marketing, food industry, medical, min- ing, surveillance, inspection and maintenance, search & rescue, guides & office, nuclear power plant, transport, refilling & refuelling, hazardous environments, military, sporting, space, underwater, etc. Different locomotion mechanisms have been developed to enable an intelligent ro- bot to move flexibly and reliably across a variety of ground surfaces, such as wheels, crawlers, legs, etc. to support crawling, rolling, walking, climbing, jump- ing, etc. types of movement. The application fields of such locomotion mechanisms are naturally restricted, depending on the condition of the ground. In order to have good mobility over uneven and rough terrain a legged robot seems to be a good solution because legged locomotion is mechanically superior to wheeled or tracked locomotion over a variety of soil conditions and certainly superior for crossing ob- stacles. In addition, the potential is enormous for wall and pipe climbing robots that can work in extremely hazardous environments, such as atomic energy, chemical compounds, high-rise buildings and large ships. The focus on developing such robots has intensified while novel and bio-inspired solutions for complex and very diverse applications have been anticipated by means of significant progress in VI this area of robotics and the supporting technologies such as, bio-inspired actua- tors, light and strong composite smart materials, reliable adhesion mechanisms, modular and reconfigurable structures, intelligent sensors, etc. Some wall climbing robots are in use in industry today to clean high-rise buildings, and to perform in- spections in dangerous environments such as storage tanks for petroleum indus- tries and nuclear power plants. The design of a wall-climbing robot is determined to a large extent by its intended application, operating environment and the ability to withstand different conditions. However, creating and controlling an intelligent legged machine that is powerful enough, but still light enough is very difficult. Legged robots are usually slower and have a lower load/power ratio with respect to wheeled robot. Researchers in the filed have recognized that it is very difficult to realize mechanical design that can keep superior energy efficiency with high number of actuators (degrees of freedom). Beside dynamic stability and safety, autonomous walking and climbing robots have distinct control issues that must be addressed carefully. The main problem facing current walking and climbing robots is their demand for high power and energy consumption, which limits mainly their autonomy. In addition, these systems require high precision in their motions, high frequency response and to be capable to generate in real-time gait mechanism based on natural dynamics. In addition, navigating and avoiding obstacles in real-time and in real environment is a challenging problem for mobile robots in general, and for legged robots in spe- cific. Nature has always been a source of inspiration and ideas for the robotics commu- nity. New solutions and technologies are required and hence this book is coming out to address and deal with the main challenges facing walking and climbing ro- bots, and contributes with innovative solutions, designs, technologies and tech- niques. This book reports on the state of the art research and development findings and results. The content of the book has been structured into 5 technical research sections with total of 30 chapters written by well recognized researchers world- wide. Finally, I hope the readers of this book will enjoy its reading and find it useful to enhance their understanding about walking and climbing robots and the support- ing technologies, and helps them to initiate new research in the field. Editor Maki K. Habib Saga University, Japan maki@ieee.org IX Contents Preface V Legged Robots: Dynamics, Motion Control and Navigation 1. Parametrically Excited Dynamic Bipedal Walking 001 Fumihiko Asano and Zhi-Wei Luo 2. Locomotion of an Underactuated Biped Robot Using a Tail 015 Fernando Juan Berenguer and Félix Monasterio-Huelin 3. Reduced DOF Type Walking Robot Based on Closed Link Mechanism 039 Katsuhiko Inagaki 4. Posture and Vibration Control Based on Virtual Suspension Model for Multi-Legged Walking Robot 051 Qingjiu Huang 5. Research on Hexapod Walking Bio-robots Workspace and Flexibility 069 Baoling Han, Qingsheng Luo, Xiaochuan Zhao and Qiuli Wang 6. A Designing Method of the Passive Dynamic Walking Robot via Analogy with Phase Locked Loop Circuits 079 Masatsugu Iribe and Koichi Osuka 7. Theoretical Investigations of the Control Movement of the CLAWAR at Statically Unstable Regimes 095 Alexander Gorobtsov 8. Selection of Obstacle Avoidance Behaviors based on Visual and Ultrasonic Sensors for Quadruped Robots 107 Kiyotaka Izumi, Ryoichi Sato, Keigo Watanabe and Maki K. Habib Wall and Pipes Climbing Robots 9. Climbing Service Robots for Improving Safety in Building Maintenance Industry 127 Bing L. Luk, Louis K. P. Liu and Arthur A. Collie 10. Gait Programming for Multi-Legged Robot Climbing on Walls and Ceilings 147 Jinwu Qian, Zhen Zhang and Li Ma 11. Armless Climbing and Walking in Robotics 171 Maki K. Rashid X 12. A Reference Control Architecture for Service Robots as applied to a Climbing Vehicle 187 Francisco Ortiz, Diego Alonso, Juan Pastor, Bárbara Álvarez and Andrés Iborra 13. Climbing with Parallel Robots 209 R. Saltarén, R. Aracil, O. Reinoso1 and E. Yime Biologically Inspired Robots and Techniques 14. Gait Synthesis in Legged Robot Locomotion using a CPG-Based Model 227 J. Cappelletto, P. Estévez, J. C. Grieco, W. Medina-Meléndez and G. Fernández-López 15. Basic Concepts of the Control and Learning Mechanism of Locomotion by the Central Pattern Generator 247 Jun Nishii and Tomoko Hioki 16. Space Exploration - Towards Bio-Inspired Climbing Robots 261 Carlo Menon, Michael Murphy, Metin Sitti and Nicholas Lan 17. Biologically Inspired Robots 279 Fred Delcomyn 18. Study on Locomotion of a Crawling Robot for Adaptation to the Environment 301 Li Chen, Yuechao Wang, Bin Li, Shugen Ma and Dengping Duan 19. Multiple Sensor Fusion and Motion Control of Snake Robot Based on Soft-computing 317 Woo-Kyung Choi, Seong-Joo Kim and Hong-Tae Jeon 20. Evolutionary Strategies Combined With Novel Binary Hill Climbing Used for Online Walking Pattern Generation in Two Legged Robot 329 Lena Mariann Garder and Mats Høvin Modular and Reconfigurable Robots 21. A Multitasking Surface Exploration Rover System 341 Antonios K. Bouloubasis and Gerard T. McKee 22. Collective Displacement of Modular Robots using Self-Reconfiguration 357 Carrillo Elian and Dominique Duhaut 23. In-pipe Robot with Active Steering Capability for Moving Inside of Pipelines 375 Hyouk Ryeol Choi and Se-gon Roh 24. Locomotion Principles of 1D Topology Pitch and Pitch-Yaw-Connecting Modular Robots 403 Juan Gonzalez-Gomez, Houxiang Zhang and Eduardo Boemo [...]... gait and ZMP conditions through parametric studies, and 2 Bioinspiration and Robotics: Walking and Climbing Robots concluded that generating an energy-efficient and high-speed dynamic biped gait is difficult using approaches based on ankle-joint actuation (Asano et al., 2004) Utilizing the torso can be considered to solve this problem and we should use the joint torques between the torso, stance, and. .. energy-efficient and high-speed dynamic biped locomotion without having to take ZMP conditions into account We hope that our approach will provide new concepts for the introduction of ZMP-free biped robots 14 Bioinspiration and Robotics: Walking and Climbing Robots 6 References Asano, F., Luo, Z.W & Yamakita, M (2005) Biped gait generation and control based on a unified property of passive dynamic walking, ... C a − G a cos( θa ) (6) (7) In (6), v1 and v2 are the magnitude of vectors v1 and v2 shown in the Figure 4.a Jbar,a is the moment of inertia of each vertical parallel bar, with respect to the rotation axis of a lower joint We have defined for greater clarity the constants Ja, Ga and Ca, and their values are: 22 Bioinspiration and Robotics: Walking and Climbing Robots J a = M foot L2bar + 2 M bar h 2... energy by control input is the necessary condition for maximum efficiency (Asano et al., 2005) 12 Bioinspiration and Robotics: Walking and Climbing Robots Fig 7 shows the specific resistance with respect to optimal combination of k and b0 k and b0 with its contours There is an in the valley of the 3-D plot, and the specific resistance is kept quite small at less than 0.04, which is much smaller than that... length, a1 and b2 , was also adjusted to the desired values before heel-strike impact The robot can then be modeled as a 3-DOF system whose generalized coordinate vector is q = [θ1 θ 2 b2 ] T , as shown in Fig 2 The dynamic equation is given by 4 Bioinspiration and Robotics: Walking and Climbing Robots 0 M (q)q + h(q, q) = Su = 0 u (7) 1 where M (q ) ∈ R 3×3 is the inertia matrix and centrifugal, and gravity... recent takes into account as a guiding principle, the 16 Bioinspiration and Robotics: Walking and Climbing Robots interaction with the environment in a cooperative manner Both approaches have at the present, open and unresolved questions and problems The main characteristic of (biped) walkers is the abrupt kinematic change between the aerial phase and the support phase The main problem is how to achieve... values Kank, Bank and θ0ank, which represent the stiffness, friction and equilibrium position in each ankle joint Due to the characteristics of the parallel link mechanism, these four joints represent only one passive degree of freedom for each leg of the mechanism 18 Bioinspiration and Robotics: Walking and Climbing Robots In summary, the model has four passive degrees of freedom and one actuated... theoretically investigated the detailed mechanism and clarified that there is a condition to decrease mechanical energy dissipation to zero when the foot radius is equal to the leg length (Asano & Luo, 2007) By utilizing this 6 Bioinspiration and Robotics: Walking and Climbing Robots effect, the robot can effectively promote parametric excitation and increase the walking speed effectively 2.3 Mechanical energy... 3/2 of the step length (Lstep) and depends on the body, legs and feet masses Then, during a stride starting with the tail in its central position and both feet on the ground, an approximation of the CoG trajectory is shown in figure 5 R1 Lstep X Lstep/2 Z Figure 5 Approximation of the CoG trajectory during a stride 24 Bioinspiration and Robotics: Walking and Climbing Robots The required length of the... for Climbing, Walking and Serpentine Robots Grzegorz Granosik 483 29 Omnidirectional Mobile Robot – Design and Implementation Ioan Doroftei, Victor Grosu and Veaceslav Spinu 511 30 On the Use of a Hexapod Table to Improve Tumour Targeting in Radiation Therapy Jürgen Meyer, Matthias Guckenberger, Jürgen Wilbert and Kurt Baier 529 1 Parametrically Excited Dynamic Bipedal Walking Fumihiko Asano1 and Zhi-Wei . Bioinspiration and Robotics: Walking and Climbing Robots Bioinspiration and Robotics: Walking and Climbing Robots Edited by Maki K. Habib I-Tech. the Austrian Library. Bioinspiration and Robotics: Walking and Climbing Robots, Edited by Maki K. Habib p. cm. ISBN 978-3-902613-15-8 1. Walking Robots. 2. Climbing Robots. I. Maki K. Habib. stability and safety, autonomous walking and climbing robots have distinct control issues that must be addressed carefully. The main problem facing current walking and climbing robots is their demand