Mark Tilden and Brossl Hasslacher
Living Machines
An excellent place to start learning about the controllers used in BEAM devices.
Mark Tilden
Paper: The Design of “Living” Biomech Machines: How low can one go?
(July 1997). From the abstract: Following three years of study into experimental Nervous Net (Nv) control devices, various successes and several amusing failures have implied some general principles on the nature of capable control systems for autonomous machines and perhaps, we conjecture, even biological organisms. These systems are minimal, elegant, and, depending upon their implementation in a “creature” structure, astonishingly robust. Their only problem seems to be that as they are collections of non-linear asynchronous elements, only a very complex analysis can adequately extract and explain the emergent competency of their operation. On the other hand, this could imply a cheap, self-programming engineering technology for autonomous machines capable of performing unattended work for years at a time, on earth and in space. Discussion, background and examples are given.
Mark Tilden and Susanne Still
- Coupled Oscillators and Walking Control: A Hardware Implementation of a distributed Motor System
- Controller for a Four Legged Walking Machine
Mark Tilden, Tim Chapman and Adam Hayes
Paper: Reactive Maze Solving with a Biologically-Inspired Wind Sensor
I had the fortunate pleasure to witness the birth of this interesting robot. Based on a Khepera platform, this little robot uses PhotoPopper-ish type sensors on it’s noggin to sense wind direction. This little trick made it very sensitive to wind currents, to the point where it could negotiate a maze without touching the walls, as long as there was a gentle breeze flowing from the exit to the entrance! Very cool….