ABSTRACT
We seek to formulate control and motion planning algorithms for a class of dynamic robotic locomotion systems. We consider mechanical systems that involve some type of interaction with the environment and have dynamics that possess rotational and translational sym metries. Research in nonholonomic systems and geo metric mechanics has led to a single, simplified frame work that describes this class of systems, which includes examples such as wheeled mobile robots, bicycles, and the snakeboard robot; undulatory robotic and biologi cal 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 am plitude, periodic inputs, or gaits, are used to yield sim plified approximate motions. These motions are then treated as abstract control inputs for a simplified, kine matic representation of the locomotion system. We de scribe the application of such an approach as applied to two examples: the snakeboard robot and an eel-like, underwater robot.
