Self-regulatory hardware: Evolutionary design for mechanical passivity on a Pseudo Passive Dynamic Walker

Abstract

The functioning of our body is the resultant of the lifelong survival competition. The body possesses the special physical characteristic shape, size, and material, and has been living throughout using this characteristic by achieving the function of the movement and the sense. Lot of functions have been added to the simple reflective system that emerged in the first generation. After the competition, the basic function of the reflective system of sense and action has been changed to be integrated and over wrapped by the new reflective system. The basic function necessary for survival has been achieved. The performance of this simple reflective system gives the chance for surviving, and we have the simple way to design an individual with good performance who can adapt to the environment. We focused on the process to acquire the structure and the material characteristics of the leg as an example of a simple reflective system. Moreover, the result of examining how the function of walking develops is described. We discuss evolution design system by using simple genetic algorithm (GA) that allow to achieve the function of the leg. We also demonstrate how to optimize a set of parameters in the competition between various designs of hardware. © 2009 Springer London.