title: Ophiuroid robot that self-organizes periodic and non-periodic arm movements.
abstract: Autonomous decentralized control is a key concept for understanding the mechanism underlying adaptive and versatile locomotion of animals. Although the design of an autonomous decentralized control system that ensures adaptability by using coupled oscillators has been proposed previously, it cannot comprehensively reproduce the versatility of animal behaviour. To tackle this problem, we focus on using ophiuroids as a simple model that exhibits versatile locomotion including periodic and non-periodic arm movements. Our existing model for ophiuroid locomotion uses an active rotator model that describes both oscillatory and excitatory properties. In this communication, we develop an ophiuroid robot to confirm the validity of this proposed model in the real world. We show that the robot travels by successfully coordinating periodic and non-periodic arm movements in response to external stimuli.
authors.affiliation: Research Institute of Electrical Communication, Tohoku University, 2-1-1 Katahira, Aoba-ku, Sendai 980-8577, Japan. tkano@riec.tohoku.ac.jp
authors.forename: Takeshi
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Kano
authors.forename: Shota
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Suzuki
authors.forename: Wataru
authors.initials: W
authors.lastname: Watanabe
authors.forename: Akio
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Ishiguro
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D040761:Biomimetic Materials; D032701:Biomimetics / Q000295:instrumentation*; D003198:Computer Simulation; D004447:Echinodermata / Q000502:physiology*; D004867:Equipment Design; D019544:Equipment Failure Analysis; D005121:Extremities / Q000502:physiology*; D008124:Locomotion / Q000502:physiology*; D008954:Models, Biological; D012371:Robotics / Q000295:instrumentation*