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An Activation-Based Behavior Control Architecture for Walking Machines

Forschungszentrum Informatik an der Universität Karlsruhe (FZI) Interactive Diagnosis and Servicesystems Haid-und-Neu-Str. 10-14, 76131 Karlsruhe, Germany albiez{at}fzi.de

Tobias Luksch

Forschungszentrum Informatik an der Universität Karlsruhe (FZI) Interactive Diagnosis and Servicesystems Haid-und-Neu-Str. 10-14, 76131 Karlsruhe, Germany albiez{at}fzi.de

Karsten Berns

Forschungszentrum Informatik an der Universität Karlsruhe (FZI) Interactive Diagnosis and Servicesystems Haid-und-Neu-Str. 10-14, 76131 Karlsruhe, Germany albiez{at}fzi.de

Rüdiger Dillmann

Forschungszentrum Informatik an der Universität Karlsruhe (FZI) Interactive Diagnosis and Servicesystems Haid-und-Neu-Str. 10-14, 76131 Karlsruhe, Germany albiez{at}fzi.de

The high complexity of the mechanical system and the challenging task of walking itself makes the task of designing the control for legged robots a difficult one. Even if the implementation of parts of the desired functionality, such as posture control or basic swing/stance movement, can be solved by the use of classical engineering approaches, the control of the overall system tends to be very inflexible. In this paper we introduce a new method to combine aspects of classical robot control and behavior-based control. Inspired by the activation patterns in the brain and the spinal cord of animals, we propose a behavior network architecture using special signals such as activity or target rating to influence and coordinate the behaviors. We describe the general concept of a single behavior as well as their interaction within the network. This architecture is tested on the four-legged walking machine, BISAM, and experimental results are presented.

Key Words: behavior-based control • four-legged walking machine • biological-inspired robotics

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