Multifunctional physical reservoir computing in soft tensegrity robots

Fuente: arXiv
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Main Authors: Terajima, Ryo, Inoue, Katsuma, Nakajima, Kohei, Kuniyoshi, Yasuo
Format: Preprint
Published: 2025
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author Terajima, Ryo
Inoue, Katsuma
Nakajima, Kohei
Kuniyoshi, Yasuo
author_facet Terajima, Ryo
Inoue, Katsuma
Nakajima, Kohei
Kuniyoshi, Yasuo
contents Recent studies have demonstrated that the dynamics of physical systems can be utilized for the desired information processing under the framework of physical reservoir computing (PRC). Robots with soft bodies are examples of such physical systems, and their nonlinear body-environment dynamics can be used to compute and generate the motor signals necessary for the control of their own behavior. In this simulation study, we extend this approach to control and embed not only one but also multiple behaviors into a type of soft robot called a tensegrity robot. The resulting system, consisting of the robot and the environment, is a multistable dynamical system that converges to different attractors from varying initial conditions. Furthermore, attractor analysis reveals that there exist "untrained attractors" in the state space of the system outside the training data. These untrained attractors reflect the intrinsic properties and structures of the tensegrity robot and its interactions with the environment. The impacts of these recent findings in PRC remain unexplored in embodied AI research. We here illustrate their potential to understand various features of embodied cognition that have not been fully addressed to date.
format Preprint
id arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2507_21496
institution arXiv
publishDate 2025
record_format arxiv
spellingShingle Multifunctional physical reservoir computing in soft tensegrity robots
Terajima, Ryo
Inoue, Katsuma
Nakajima, Kohei
Kuniyoshi, Yasuo
Robotics
Machine Learning
Chaotic Dynamics
Recent studies have demonstrated that the dynamics of physical systems can be utilized for the desired information processing under the framework of physical reservoir computing (PRC). Robots with soft bodies are examples of such physical systems, and their nonlinear body-environment dynamics can be used to compute and generate the motor signals necessary for the control of their own behavior. In this simulation study, we extend this approach to control and embed not only one but also multiple behaviors into a type of soft robot called a tensegrity robot. The resulting system, consisting of the robot and the environment, is a multistable dynamical system that converges to different attractors from varying initial conditions. Furthermore, attractor analysis reveals that there exist "untrained attractors" in the state space of the system outside the training data. These untrained attractors reflect the intrinsic properties and structures of the tensegrity robot and its interactions with the environment. The impacts of these recent findings in PRC remain unexplored in embodied AI research. We here illustrate their potential to understand various features of embodied cognition that have not been fully addressed to date.
title Multifunctional physical reservoir computing in soft tensegrity robots
topic Robotics
Machine Learning
Chaotic Dynamics
url https://arxiv.org/abs/2507.21496