Variable-Impedance Muscle Coordination under Slow-Rate Control Frequencies and Limited Observation Conditions Evaluated through Legged Locomotion

Fuente: arXiv
Saved in:
Bibliographic Details
Main Authors: Asai, Hidaka, Noda, Tomoyuki, Morimoto, Jun
Format: Preprint
Published: 2025
Subjects:
Online Access:
Tags: Add Tag
No Tags, Be the first to tag this record!
_version_ 1866917121666056192
author Asai, Hidaka
Noda, Tomoyuki
Morimoto, Jun
author_facet Asai, Hidaka
Noda, Tomoyuki
Morimoto, Jun
contents Human motor control remains agile and robust despite limited sensory information for feedback, a property attributed to the body's ability to perform morphological computation through muscle coordination with variable impedance. However, it remains unclear how such low-level mechanical computation reduces the control requirements of the high-level controller. In this study, we implement a hierarchical controller consisting of a high-level neural network trained by reinforcement learning and a low-level variable-impedance muscle coor dination model with mono- and biarticular muscles in monoped locomotion task. We systematically restrict the high-level controller by varying the control frequency and by introducing biologically inspired observation conditions: delayed, partial, and substituted observation. Under these conditions, we evaluate how the low-level variable-impedance muscle coordination contributes to learning process of high-level neural network. The results show that variable-impedance muscle coordination enables stable locomotion even under slow-rate control frequency and limited observation conditions. These findings demonstrate that the morphological computation of muscle coordination effectively offloads high-frequency feedback of the high-level controller and provide a design principle for the controller in motor control.
format Preprint
id arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2512_03459
institution arXiv
publishDate 2025
record_format arxiv
spellingShingle Variable-Impedance Muscle Coordination under Slow-Rate Control Frequencies and Limited Observation Conditions Evaluated through Legged Locomotion
Asai, Hidaka
Noda, Tomoyuki
Morimoto, Jun
Systems and Control
Robotics
Human motor control remains agile and robust despite limited sensory information for feedback, a property attributed to the body's ability to perform morphological computation through muscle coordination with variable impedance. However, it remains unclear how such low-level mechanical computation reduces the control requirements of the high-level controller. In this study, we implement a hierarchical controller consisting of a high-level neural network trained by reinforcement learning and a low-level variable-impedance muscle coor dination model with mono- and biarticular muscles in monoped locomotion task. We systematically restrict the high-level controller by varying the control frequency and by introducing biologically inspired observation conditions: delayed, partial, and substituted observation. Under these conditions, we evaluate how the low-level variable-impedance muscle coordination contributes to learning process of high-level neural network. The results show that variable-impedance muscle coordination enables stable locomotion even under slow-rate control frequency and limited observation conditions. These findings demonstrate that the morphological computation of muscle coordination effectively offloads high-frequency feedback of the high-level controller and provide a design principle for the controller in motor control.
title Variable-Impedance Muscle Coordination under Slow-Rate Control Frequencies and Limited Observation Conditions Evaluated through Legged Locomotion
topic Systems and Control
Robotics
url https://arxiv.org/abs/2512.03459