Nature's All-in-One: Multitasking Robots Inspired by Dung Beetles
Binggwong Leung, Stanislav Gorb, Poramate Manoonpong

TL;DR
This paper presents a neural-inspired control system for robots that mimics dung beetles' multitasking ability to walk and roll balls over various terrains, advancing robotic adaptability and biological understanding.
Contribution
It introduces a modular neural control architecture inspired by dung beetles, enabling robots to perform adaptive multitasking locomotion on diverse terrains and object weights.
Findings
Successful control of a robot performing walking and ball-rolling tasks
Robust adaptation to different terrains and ball weights
Enhanced understanding of biological sensory-motor coordination
Abstract
Dung beetles impressively coordinate their six legs simultaneously to effectively roll large dung balls. They are also capable of rolling dung balls varying in the weight on different terrains. The mechanisms underlying how their motor commands are adapted to walk and simultaneously roll balls (multitasking behavior) under different conditions remain unknown. Therefore, this study unravels the mechanisms of how dung beetles roll dung balls and adapt their leg movements to stably roll balls over different terrains for multitasking robots. We synthesize a modular neural-based loco-manipulation control inspired by and based on ethological observations of the ball-rolling behavior of dung beetles. The proposed neural-based control contains various neural modules, including a central pattern generator (CPG) module, a pattern formation network (PFN) module, and a robot orientation control…
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