Some living beings both on ground and in water can move by forming traveling waves along their bodies, therefore the mechanisms using the traveling waves have the amphibious possibility . Several robots have been developed using the mechanisms, but there are no amphibious robots . In this study, our goal is development of a bio-mimetic soft cord robot which can move on ground and in water. Firs...

The effectiveness of a legged robot’s gait is highly dependent on the ground cover of the terrain the robot is traversing. It is therefore advantageous for a legged robot to adapt its behaviour to suit the environment. In order to achieve this, the robot must be able to detect and classify the type of ground cover it is traversing. We present a novel approach for ground cover classification tha...

The objective of this research is the study of the process of modelling, prediction and evaluation of the predictive capabilities of a mass-spring-like model, applied to the concrete scenario of robotic manipulation of an elastic deformable object. We managed to automatically calibrate the model taking images and forces from a real sponge as ground truth. The model can make good predictions for...

|The problem addressed in this paper is obstacle detection in the context of mobile robot navigation using visual information. The goal is achieved by analyzing successive pairs of time varying images acquired with the TV camera mounted on the moving robot. Assuming the robot is moving on a at ground, any obstacle is identi ed by any cluster of points not coplanar with the largest number of poi...

Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) is developing space robotic technologies to realize a robot to support manned space activity. JAXA plans to conduct a robot experiment to demonstrate locomotion strategy using tethers and an extendable robotic arm with a robotic hand on the International Space Station, Japanese Experiment Module Exposed Facility (JEM-EF) in fiscal year 2011. The experim...

Our obstacle detection method is applicable to deliberative translation motion of a mobile robot and, in such motion, the epipole of each image of an image pair is coincident and termed the focus of expansion (FOE). We present an accurate method for computing the FOE and then we use this to apply a novel rectification to each image, called a reciprocal-polar (RP) rectification. When robot trans...

Safe robot navigation is a fundamental research field for autonomous robots including ground mobile robots and flying robots. The primary objective of a safe robot navigation algorithm is to guide an autonomous robot from its initial position to a target or along a desired path with obstacle avoidance. With the development of information technology and sensor technology, the implementations com...

This paper studies the dynamics of foot–ground interaction in hexapod locomotion systems. For that objective the robot motion is characterized in terms of several locomotion variables and the ground is modelled through a non-linear springdashpot system, with parameters based on the studies of soil mechanics. Moreover, it is adopted an algorithm with footforce feedback to control the robot locom...

This paper describes a design of six-axis force sensor that mesures ground reaction force of human or humanoid robot. The key concept is parallel support mechanisms that allow large torques and forces which are caused when foot is hitting to the environment. Basic concept and design of parallel support mechanisms are denoted. Finally ground reaction force measurement system for human walking, a...

In this work we research the role of body dynamics in the complexity of kinematic patterns in a quadruped robot with compliant legs. Two gait patterns, lateral sequence walk and trot, along with leg length control patterns of different complexity were implemented in a modular, feed-forward locomotion controller. The controller was tested on a small, quadruped robot with compliant, segmented leg...