The Lagging Legs Exploiting Body Dynamics to Steer a Quadrupedal Agent.pdfVIP

The Lagging Legs – Exploiting Body Dynamics to Steer a Quadrupedal Agent 1 1 1 Mike Rinderknecht , Jonas Ruesch and Maik Hadorn 1 Artificial Intelligence Laboratory, Institute of Informatics, University of Zurich, Andreasstrasse 15, 8050 Zurich, Switzerland Contact: rinderknecht|ruesch|hadorn @ifi.unizh.ch Abstract The goal of this work was to steer a quad- the corresponding motor and are physically connected to rupedal agent simply by changing the phase delay the hind legs. The hind legs are connected to the body of between its legs. Thus, we were able to show that a the agent and are equipped with rubber feet that are quadrupedal agent could possibly reach every point slightly agile. Every leg has two degrees of freedom. The on a plane simply by exploiting its body dynamics. By controller was written in the official MINDSTORMS™ exploiting body dynamics the controller has to fulfill NXT software. only the function of a disturbance variable rather The experiments were made on tables with a smooth sur- 2 than exactly controlling the parameters of an agent’s face (total area: 7.44m , all tables together form a square movement. area approximately). The agent is being recorded by