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Main Authors: Fu, Xun, Zhang, Bohao, Weber, Ceri J., Cooper, Kimberly L., Vasudevan, Ram, Moore, Talia Y.
Format: Preprint
Published: 2024
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Online Access:https://arxiv.org/abs/2406.09700
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author Fu, Xun
Zhang, Bohao
Weber, Ceri J.
Cooper, Kimberly L.
Vasudevan, Ram
Moore, Talia Y.
author_facet Fu, Xun
Zhang, Bohao
Weber, Ceri J.
Cooper, Kimberly L.
Vasudevan, Ram
Moore, Talia Y.
contents Tails used as inertial appendages induce body rotations of animals and robots, a phenomenon that is governed largely by the ratio of the body and tail moments of inertia. However, vertebrate tails have more degrees of freedom (e.g., number of joints, rotational axes) than most current theoretical models and robotic tails. To understand how morphology affects inertial appendage function, we developed an optimization-based approach that finds the maximally effective tail trajectory and measures error from a target trajectory. For tails of equal total length and mass, increasing the number of equal-length joints increased the complexity of maximally effective tail motions. When we optimized the relative lengths of tail bones while keeping the total tail length, mass, and number of joints the same, this optimization-based approach found that the lengths match the pattern found in the tail bones of mammals specialized for inertial maneuvering. In both experiments, adding joints enhanced the performance of the inertial appendage, but with diminishing returns, largely due to the total control effort constraint. This optimization-based simulation can compare the maximum performance of diverse inertial appendages that dynamically vary in moment of inertia in 3D space, predict inertial capabilities from skeletal data, and inform the design of robotic inertial appendages.
format Preprint
id arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2406_09700
institution arXiv
publishDate 2024
record_format arxiv
spellingShingle Jointed Tails Enhance Control of Three-dimensional Body Rotation
Fu, Xun
Zhang, Bohao
Weber, Ceri J.
Cooper, Kimberly L.
Vasudevan, Ram
Moore, Talia Y.
Robotics
Biological Physics
Tails used as inertial appendages induce body rotations of animals and robots, a phenomenon that is governed largely by the ratio of the body and tail moments of inertia. However, vertebrate tails have more degrees of freedom (e.g., number of joints, rotational axes) than most current theoretical models and robotic tails. To understand how morphology affects inertial appendage function, we developed an optimization-based approach that finds the maximally effective tail trajectory and measures error from a target trajectory. For tails of equal total length and mass, increasing the number of equal-length joints increased the complexity of maximally effective tail motions. When we optimized the relative lengths of tail bones while keeping the total tail length, mass, and number of joints the same, this optimization-based approach found that the lengths match the pattern found in the tail bones of mammals specialized for inertial maneuvering. In both experiments, adding joints enhanced the performance of the inertial appendage, but with diminishing returns, largely due to the total control effort constraint. This optimization-based simulation can compare the maximum performance of diverse inertial appendages that dynamically vary in moment of inertia in 3D space, predict inertial capabilities from skeletal data, and inform the design of robotic inertial appendages.
title Jointed Tails Enhance Control of Three-dimensional Body Rotation
topic Robotics
Biological Physics
url https://arxiv.org/abs/2406.09700