arXiv:2602.09123cs.ROcs.SY2026-02

提出新框架,让六足机器人用不对称步态快50%。

Agile asymmetric multi-legged locomotion: contact planning via geometric mechanics and spin model duality

  • 用几何力学把多足接触规划转成图优化问题
  • 发现不对称步态使前进速度达0.61体长/周期(提升50%)
  • 适合研究高维机器人控制与新型仿生设计的人

当前足式机器人研究集中于双足或四足机器人,尽管可制造更多腿的机器人以提升运动性能。这种不平衡并非源于硬件限制,而是缺乏能解释何时及如何通过增加腿数改善运动性能的系统化控制框架。在多足系统中,同时协调大量接触点带来严重的维度灾难,挑战现有建模与控制方法。目前多足机器人通常采用为双足或四足设计的低维步态,无法利用高维系统中新出现的对称性与控制机会。本文提出一种系统化框架,用于发现多足运动中的新控制结构。我们运用几何力学将接触密集的运动规划转化为图优化问题,并提出源自统计力学的自旋模型对偶框架,利用对称性破缺引导最优步态重构。通过该方法,我们为六足机器人识别出一种不对称运动策略,实现每周期0.61个体长的前进速度(较传统步态提升50%)。这种不对称性同时体现在控制与硬件层面:控制上,身体朝向在快速顺时针与慢速逆时针转动阶段间不对称振荡;硬件上,同侧两腿可被动化为刚性部件而不影响性能。数值仿真与机器人实验验证了该框架,并揭示了高维具身系统中通过对称性重塑产生的新颖运动行为。

原文摘要 · Abstract (English)

Legged robot research is presently focused on bipedal or quadrupedal robots, despite capabilities to build robots with many more legs to potentially improve locomotion performance. This imbalance is not necessarily due to hardware limitations, but rather to the absence of principled control frameworks that explain when and how additional legs improve locomotion performance. In multi-legged systems, coordinating many simultaneous contacts introduces a severe curse of dimensionality that challenges existing modeling and control approaches. As an alternative, multi-legged robots are typically controlled using low-dimensional gaits originally developed for bipeds or quadrupeds. These strategies fail to exploit the new symmetries and control opportunities that emerge in higher-dimensional systems. In this work, we develop a principled framework for discovering new control structures in multi-legged locomotion. We use geometric mechanics to reduce contact-rich locomotion planning to a graph optimization problem, and propose a spin model duality framework from statistical mechanics to exploit symmetry breaking and guide optimal gait reorganization. Using this approach, we identify an asymmetric locomotion strategy for a hexapod robot that achieves a forward speed of 0.61 body lengths per cycle (a 50% improvement over conventional gaits). The resulting asymmetry appears at both the control and hardware levels. At the control level, the body orientation oscillates asymmetrically between fast clockwise and slow counterclockwise turning phases for forward locomotion. At the hardware level, two legs on the same side remain unactuated and can be replaced with rigid parts without degrading performance. Numerical simulations and robophysical experiments validate the framework and reveal novel locomotion behaviors that emerge from symmetry reforming in high-dimensional embodied systems.

多足机器人不对称步态运动规划几何力学

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