A soft robot design team defines mo
rphological computation as "the use of mechanism as mind". In "What Tensegrities and Caterpillars Can Teach" John Rieffel, Barry Trimmer and Hod Lipson address robotic locomotion via dynamic tensegrity structure.
They discuss that tensegrity embodies ”morphological computation,” where actuation and control of the structure is embodied within the structural dynamics of the robot itself.
The biological musculoskeletal system is thought to work in this way, as is cellular biomechanics. In this paper the authors review some details of a catepillar's anatomy and locomotion as it pertains to morphological computation. They then present related work in which a highly complex mechanical system – a tensegrity structure – is able to achieve locomotion by exploiting the dynamical coupling between modules as an emergent data bus.
The authors bring these aspects together when describing the design and control of a completely soft robot modeled loosely on the manduca. Their goal is to present morphological computation – the use of mechanism as mind – as the best approach to solving the issues of actuation and control inherent in soft robotics.
The examples of morphological computation that they bring - one from biology, the manduca sexta caterpillar, and one from engineering, a modular tensegrity tower - bring the design of a highly articulate, under-controlled, soft robot closer to fruition.
What Tensegrities and Caterpillars Can Teach Us About Soft Robotics by Rieffel, Trimmer, Lipson
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