Robot Readings

From enfascination

Jump to: navigation, search
 
(15 intermediate revisions by one user not shown)
Line 1: Line 1:
 
Here are reviews and notes on papers.  For starters they are all about distributed insect inspired robot locomotion.
 
Here are reviews and notes on papers.  For starters they are all about distributed insect inspired robot locomotion.
  
−
A Comparison of Three Insect Inspired Locomotion Controllers
+
===Distributed/Centralized Robot Locomotion===
−
Cynthia Ferrell, of the Brooks Lab.  The paper was published sometime in the mid nineties
+
*[[A Comparison of Three Insect Inspired Locomotion Controllers]] Farrell
 +
**[[Descendants of Farrell paper]]
 +
*[[Lampreys]]
 +
*[[The Ambler]]
 +
*[[Biologically Inspired Approaches to Robotics]] (Beer, Quinn, Chiel and Ritzmann)
 +
*[[A Distributed Neural Network Architecture for Hexapod Robot Locomotion]] Beer, Chiel, Quinn, Espenschied, Larsson
 +
*[[Controller for a four legged walking machine]] Still, Tilden
 +
*[[More by Tilden]]
 +
*[[Walking robots and the Central and Peripheral Control of Locomotion in Insects]] 1999 Delcomyn
 +
*[[More Brooks]]
 +
*[[More Beer]]
 +
*[[Porta and also Celaya]]
 +
*[[Wilson '66]]
 +
*[[Comparing different controllers for the coordination of a six-legged walker]] Roggendorf 2003
 +
*[[Analysis of a distributed model of leg coordination]] Calvitti, Beer 1999
 +
*[[An information theoretic landscape analysis of neuro-controlled embodied organisms]] Teo, Abbass, 2004
  
−
She compares a spectrum of approaches from particularly decentralized 'reflexive' based controllers (Beer, Chiel and Cruse) to somewhat the more centralized 'Patterned' controllers (which use less sensation and more central coordination of walking patterns) (Brooks, Collins and Stuart), with a look at 'Hybrid' control schemes incorporating elements of both.  I should say now that, as of two weeks ago, I am a student of Beer.
 
  
−
I was excited about the paper because I thought it would offer general insights into the relative advantages and disadvantages of each approach.  HOwever, it was mostly a chronicle of the implementation of each model on their robot, Hannibal, along with a review of the models the work is based on. This betrays their interest in the practical, which, for starters, isn't what I was looking for.
+
===Questions===
 +
Where is the debate and the work now? I understand if interest has moved elsewhere, like to swarms, but would this be because anything in this domain got resolved, or because people (including funders) got bored?
  
−
When it comes down to it, Ferrell's results on Hannibal favor patterned approaches to insect robot locomotion.   
+
===Media and Papers===
 +
I got all the papers off Google Scholar.
 +
Some videos here: I can see my desk:
 +
http://www.youtube.com/user/chully00
  
−
Mention is made of the Ambler (Krotkov, Simmons and also Thorpe, '90, '92), which seems like a model for extremely centralized approaches to control.
+
===Keywords===
−
 
+
"Neuroethology ("neuro" Greek; related to nerve cells, "ethos" Greek; habit or custom) is an evolutionary and comparative approach to the study of animal behavior and its underlying biological causation by the nervous system. This interdisciplinary branch of neuroscience endeavors to understand how the central nervous system translates biologically relevant stimuli into behavioral activity, thus attempting to elucidate the structure and function of the neurophysiological "black box" that controls the natural behavior of animals, often referred to as "instinctive behavior" or "innate behavior"."
−
Two important quotes:
+
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Neuroethology
−
"Another drawback of reflexive controllers is their difficulty to add new behaviors.  The controller mechanisms interact in a very specialziezed way  to produce gait coordination.  Consequently is it difficult to incorporate dramatically different behaviors without disrupting controller dynamics"
+
−
and, conversely:
+
−
"In contrast, the appeal of a patterneed approach is the ease of adding new features to the system"
+
−
I have to get my head around this observation. Is this a reflexion of their platform or a fundamental aspect of centralized control that new behaviors are easier to add.  Does it reflect a lack of a procedure in the science of distributed approaches for adding new behaviors?  Also, what are behaviors?
+
−
 
+
−
Questions:
+
−
*It sounded like implementation on a robot designed for centralized locomotion models interfered with the ability of the researchers to characterize the full pros and cons of each approach.  In a few places they describe problems they encountered implementing the reflexive approaches at the pure 'reflexive' researchers didn't. In general, there seemed to be a good amount of fudging from the 'ideal' of each model to actual implementation.  This is understandable, but perhaps could be controlled better in the future.
+
−
 
+
−
*If there was a debate here, it happened a good decade+ ago.  Where is the controversy now?
+
−
To what extent were biologically inspired approaches implemented on either of the Martian rovers.  Why not?
+
−
 
+
−
*Much of the biological inspiration for all of the models comes from Wilson '66.  Is this E.O.?
+

Latest revision as of 19:42, 31 October 2008

Here are reviews and notes on papers. For starters they are all about distributed insect inspired robot locomotion.

Contents

Distributed/Centralized Robot Locomotion


Questions

Where is the debate and the work now? I understand if interest has moved elsewhere, like to swarms, but would this be because anything in this domain got resolved, or because people (including funders) got bored?

Media and Papers

I got all the papers off Google Scholar. Some videos here: I can see my desk: http://www.youtube.com/user/chully00

Keywords

"Neuroethology ("neuro" Greek; related to nerve cells, "ethos" Greek; habit or custom) is an evolutionary and comparative approach to the study of animal behavior and its underlying biological causation by the nervous system. This interdisciplinary branch of neuroscience endeavors to understand how the central nervous system translates biologically relevant stimuli into behavioral activity, thus attempting to elucidate the structure and function of the neurophysiological "black box" that controls the natural behavior of animals, often referred to as "instinctive behavior" or "innate behavior"." http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Neuroethology

Retrieved from "http://enfascination.com/wiki/index.php?title=Robot_Readings&oldid=1851"