soft robotics

Advanced Robotics 2018

"Feedback-Driven Oscillatory Control of a Tensegrity-based Vertebral Column Robot for Postural Balance"

Artem Melnyk, Alex Pitti

Topic: In comparison to animals, current robots are not very soft and their structure is still fragile.

We propose to exploit the architectural design principle known as Tensegrity to build Soft Robots lightweight, robust, compliant and fun to build!

We started with a Vertebral Column architecture controlled by Central Pattern Generators that can stand upward and balance to absorb shocks. [more info on the control part in the publications]

DIY:

Tensegrity structures are nice educational tools too, we provide the 3D components in Tinkercad, https://www.tinkercad.com/things/6iBMNx721aK-tensegrity10

enjoy and please share with us your comments, prototypes and ideas!

Melnyk, A. & Pitti, A. Synergistic Control of a Multi-Degrees of Freedom Vertebral Column Robot based on Tensegrity for Postural Balance Advanced Robotics, 2018

Pitti A., Niiyama, R. & Kuniyoshi Y., Creating and modulating rhythms by controlling the physics of the body, Autonomous Robots, 2010, 28, 3, 317-329

Pitti A., Lungarella, M. & Kuniyoshi Y., Generating Spatiotemporal Joint Torque Patterns from Dynamical Synchronization of Distributed Pattern Generators, Frontiers in NeuroRobotics, Feb 2009, vol.3, no.2, pp. 1-14

Pitti, A. Lungarella M. & Kuniyoshi Y. (2006) Exploration of natural dynamics through resonance and chaos. Proc. of the 9th Int. Conf. on Intelligent Autonomous Systems, pp.558-565. 

Pitti, A. Lungarella M. & Kuniyoshi Y. (2005) Quantification of emergent behaviors induced by feedback resonance of chaos. Recent Advances in Artificial Life: Advances in Natural Computation, vol.3, chap.15, pp.199-213