Phase Regulation of Decentralized Cyclic Robotic Systems

We address the problem of coupling cyclic robotic tasks to produce a specified coordinated behavior. Such coordination tasks are common in robotics, appearing in applications like walking, hopping, running, juggling and factory automation. In this paper we introduce a general methodology for designing controllers for such settings. We introduce a class of dynamical systems defined over n-dimensional tori (the cross product of n oscillator phases) that serve as reference fields for the specified task. These dynamical systems represent the ideal flow and phase couplings of the various cyclic tasks to be coordinated. In particular, given a specification of the desired connections between oscillating subsystems, we synthesize an appropriate reference field and show how to determine whether the specification is realized by the field. In the simplest case that the oscillating components admit a continuous control authority, they are made to track the phases of the corresponding components o...

• Type: Journal
• Year: 2002
• Where: IJRR
• Authors: Eric Klavins, Daniel E. Koditschek
• Keywords: Cyclic Robotic Tasks, Dynamical Systems, IJRR 2002, Reference Fields