Neuronal network control for robust entrainment to natural oscillations - A case study

Biological control mechanism has motivated central pattern generator (CPG) circuits as the basic architecture of nonlinear control laws to achieve coordinated oscillations of engineered systems. In this paper, the coordinated oscillations of a multi-link pendulum on slope (MPOS) system are investigated. In an MPOS model, the gravity of the links and their interaction (friction) with the slope excites and damps the oscillating motion, respectively. With the sensory feedback from the links' angular states, the entrainment to a class of natural oscillations is achieved by a CPG based controller. The entrainment is robust with respect to a certain environmental and body variations.