TABLE OF CONTENTS In this part of the book several examples of bio-inspired robots are shown. The first example is a lamprey-like robot driven by an RD-CNN. Then several prototypes of hexapod robots are illustrated. The first one, called MTA hexbot I, is an example of an autonomous robot implementing the methodology based on MTA introduced in Chap. 2. This robot has two degrees of freedom for each leg. The second example is a hexapod robot with a more complicate leg design; each leg has now three degrees of freedom. Moreover, the robot is remote-controlled and the direction control discussed on Chap. 3 is implemented. The last example shows a hexapod robot controlled by the CNN-based CPG VLSI chip.
The lamprey is an eel-like fish that swims by rhythmic undulations of its body, which can be divided into a Cerebral Trunk (CT) and a number of Spinal Cord Segments (SCS). Like other fish, a lamprey swims by progressively contracting its muscles via undulatory, wavelike motions from head to tail. Swimming involves coordinated sequences of muscle contractions regulated by the nervous system. The neural control system for swimming in the lamprey spinal cord has been efficiently unravelled by Grillner [Grillner et. al. (1991)]. The circuit is quite complicated, but the overall organization can be schematized and a simplified realization is possible. In Grillner s description each segment of the lamprey has its own CPG, which is locally connected via intersegmental connections to the neighboring ones and...
