Physics approaches to natural locomotion: Every robot is an experiment
Publication Type:
Journal
Authors:
Co-Authors:
Yasemin Ozkan Aydin, Jennifer M. Rieser, William Savoie, and Daniel Goldman
Year Published:
2018
Abstract:
As robots begin to move from the controlled conditions in factories to messy real-world terrestrial environments, they confront mechanical interactions with nature that are challenging to model (e.g., materials like grass, rubble, and leaf litter) and/or are unplanned for (e.g., collisions with boulders and other robots). We posit that limited insight into novel dynamics associated with such interactions plays a role in the present lack of robust artificial locomotion at the level of living systems. Inspired by Eric Krotkov's 1990 paper that proposed for legged robots that “every step is an experiment” we believe that important insights will result from beginning to treat robots and their behaviors as physics experiments. Such an approach should take its place alongside the disciplines of computer science and control theory, the traditional homes for robotics research. We will demonstrate the efficacy of the experimental robotics mindset through examples from our work using robots as tools to discover novel interaction mechanics; these include legged locomotion on granular media, undulatory propulsion and scattering in heterogeneous terrain, and rudimentary robots made from active matter (other robots). Perhaps a new discipline (which we propose to call “robophysics”) that integrates control theory, dynamical systems, and environmental interaction mechanics can lead to a physics of robotics, similar to how thermodynamics emerged as a physics of engines.
Journal:
Robotic Systems and Autonomous Platforms
Volume:
2019
Issue:
Chapter 6
Pagination:
109-127
ISSN:
Short Title:
Date Published:
10/19/2018