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research article

A neuromechanics solution for adjustable robot compliance and accuracy

Abadia, Ignacio
•
Bruel, Alice  
•
Courtine, Gregoire  
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January 22, 2025
Science Robotics

Robots have to adjust their motor behavior to changing environments and variable task requirements to successfully operate in the real world and physically interact with humans. Thus, robotics strives to enable a broad spectrum of adjustable motor behavior, aiming to mimic the human ability to function in unstructured scenarios. In humans, motor behavior arises from the integrative action of the central nervous system and body biomechanics; motion must be understood from a neuromechanics perspective. Nervous regions such as the cerebellum facilitate learning, adaptation, and coordination of our motor responses, ultimately driven by muscle activation. Muscles, in turn, self-stabilize motion through mechanical viscoelasticity. In addition, the agonist-antagonist arrangement of muscles surrounding joints enables cocontraction, which can be regulated to enhance motion accuracy and adapt joint stiffness, thereby providing impedance modulation and broadening the motor repertoire. Here, we propose a control solution that harnesses neuromechanics to enable adjustable robot motor behavior. Our solution integrates a muscle model that replicates mechanical viscoelasticity and cocontraction together with a cerebellar network providing motor adaptation. The resulting cerebello-muscular controller drives the robot through torque commands in a feedback control loop. Changes in cocontraction modify the muscle dynamics, and the cerebellum provides motor adaptation without relying on prior analytical solutions, driving the robot in different motor tasks, including payload perturbations and operation across unknown terrains. Experimental results show that cocontraction modulates robot stiffness, performance accuracy, and robustness against external perturbations. Through cocontraction modulation, our cerebello-muscular torque controller enables a broad spectrum of robot motor behavior.

  • Details
  • Metrics
Type
research article
DOI
10.1126/scirobotics.adp2356
Web of Science ID

WOS:001401611500002

PubMed ID

39841815

Author(s)
Abadia, Ignacio

University of Granada

Bruel, Alice  

École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne

Courtine, Gregoire  

École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne

Ijspeert, Auke J.  

École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne

Ros, Eduardo

University of Granada

Luque, Niceto R.

University of Granada

Date Issued

2025-01-22

Publisher

AMER ASSOC ADVANCEMENT SCIENCE

Published in
Science Robotics
Volume

10

Issue

98

Article Number

eadp2356

Subjects

IMPEDANCE CONTROL

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ADAPTIVE-CONTROL

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JOINT

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FORCE

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ADAPTATION

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COCONTRACTION

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MANIPULATORS

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ACTUATORS

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MOVEMENTS

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FRAMEWORK

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Science & Technology

•

Technology

Editorial or Peer reviewed

REVIEWED

Written at

EPFL

EPFL units
BIOROB  
UPCOURTINE  
FunderFunding(s)Grant NumberGrant URL

MCIN/AEI

CNS2022-135243;PID2023-146392NB-I00;PID2022-140095NB- I00;TED2021-131466B-I00

NextGenerationEU/PRTR

European Union (EU)

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Available on Infoscience
February 1, 2025
Use this identifier to reference this record
https://infoscience.epfl.ch/handle/20.500.14299/246325
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