TABLE OF CONTENTS James P. Ostrowski, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, PA
Kenneth A. McIsaac, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, PA
We seek to formulate control and motion planning algorithms for a class of dynamic robotic locomotion systems. We consider mechanical systems that involve some type of interaction with the environment and have dynamics that possess rotational and translational symmetries. Research in nonholonomic systems and geometric mechanics has led to a single, simplified framework that describes this class of systems, which includes examples such as wheeled mobile robots, bicycles, and the snakeboard robot; undulatory robotic and biological locomotion systems, such as paramecia, inchworms, snakes, and eels; and the reorientation of satellites and underwater vehicles with attached robotic arms. We explore a hybrid systems approach in which small amplitude, periodic inputs, or gaits, are used to yield simplified approximate motions. These motions are then treated as abstract control inputs for a simplified, kinematic representation of the locomotion system. We describe the application of such an approach as applied to two examples: the snakeboard robot and an eel-like, underwater robot.
The field of robotic motion planning has generally focused on the study of wheeled vehicles, and very often this has implied kinematic representations of such systems [9, 14]. When dynamics are treated, they are generally directly actuated, e.g., through wheel torques applied to the wheels, and do not involve unactuated motions. In such cases, the kinematic representation of such a system can be proven to be fully adequate [13].
More recently, the motion planning...
