CPG and Reflexes Combined Adaptive Walking Control for AIBO

From basic neuro-physiological evidences, it is now generally accepted that animals' walking control is subject to the combination function of central pattern generator(CPG) located at the spinal cords and reflexes from the peripheral stimulus. Since phase oscillators have the advantage of mathematical tractability, it's convenient to adjust the phase relationship between them. In this paper, coupled phase oscillators were designed to simulate CPG's behavior and establish vestibular reflex with feedbacks from accelerator sensors. Afterward, the synchronization condition of this proposed CPG model was studied. Forward and backward walking, gait transfers between trot and walk were realized as well. With feedbacks, AIBO detected uphill and downhill terrain and changed its posture automatically to fit for the new environment. Simulations were done in Webots to verify this method.