A Framework for Steering Dynamic Robotic Locomotion Systems

We seek to formulate control and motion planning algorithms for a class of dynamic robotic locomo-tion systems. We consider mechanical systems that involve some type of interaction with the environment and have dynamics that possess rotational and translational symmetries. Research in nonholo-nomic systems and geometric mechanics has led to a single, simpliied framework that describes this class of systems, which includes examples such as wheeled mobile robots, bicycles, and the snakeboard robot; undulatory robotic and biological locomotion systems , such as paramecia, inchworms, snakes, and eels; and the reorientation of satellites and underwater vehicles with attached robotic arms. We explore a hybrid systems approach in which small amplitude , periodic inputs, or gaits, are used to yield simpliied approximate motions. These motions are then treated as abstract control inputs for a sim-pliied, kinematic representation of the locomotion system. We describe the application of such an approach as applied to two examples: the snakeboard robot and an eel-like, underwater robot.