Behavior-Based Control for 13-link Brachiation Robot

This paper proposes a novel adaptation method for behavior-based locomotion robot. Utilization of the hierarchical behavior controller concept makes the controller designing process easier and shorter, because the designer can deal with behavior controllers for simple behaviors independently, and coordinate those behavior controllers in order for a robot to perform the objective behavior after finishing the design of the fundamental behavior controllers. Some problems are still remaining. One is how to adjust the behavior coordinator when the objective behavior or robot parameters are slightly changed. We propose a novel method to adjust the behavior coordinator against some changes. This method measures the effects of the fundamental behavior controllers to the total behavior, and changes the activation values for them in fewer trials. This proposed method is applied to the real brachiation robot control. This brachiation robot has redundant mechanism to locomote from branch to branch with 14 actuators like a long-armed ape.