CPG modulation for navigation and omnidirectional quadruped locomotion

Navigation in biological mechanisms represents a set of skills needed for the survival of individuals, including target acquisition and obstacle avoidance.In this article, we focus on the development of a quadruped locomotion controller able to generate omnidirectional locomotion and a path planning controller for heading direction. The heading direction controller is able to adapt to sensory-motor visual feedback, and online adapt its trajectory according to visual information that modifies the control parameters. This allows for integration of sensory-motor feedback and closed-loop control. This issue is crucial for autonomous and adaptive control, and has received little attention so far. This modeling is based on the concept of dynamical systems.We present experiments performed on a real AIBO platform. The obtained results demonstrate both the adequacy of the proposed locomotor controller to generate the required trajectories and to generate the desired movement in terms of the walking velocity, orientation and angular velocity. Further, the controller is demonstrated on a simulated quadruped robot which walks towards a visually acquired target while avoiding online-visually detected obstacles in its path.

► We propose a bio-inspired architecture to generate the coordinated trajectories for omnidirectional quadruped locomotion.
► We modulate the generated motor patterns according to walking velocity, given orientation and angular velocity.
► Extends previous work, enabling the integration of existing feedback solutions.
► We demonstrate the system working on a goal-oriented locomotion task.