Autonomous decentralized system with self-organizing function and its application to generation of locomotive patterns

The authors consider a synthesis approach to autonomous decentralized systems in which the functional order of the entire system is generated by cooperative interaction among its subsystems, each of which has the autonomy to control a part of the state of the system, and its application to pattern generators of animal locomotion. Biological locomotive rhythms, their generators, and gait patterns of quadrupeds are reviewed briefly. A design principle for autonomous coordination of many oscillators is proposed. Using these results, a gait pattern generator that suitably changes gait patterns for its moving speed is synthesized. It is shown, using computer simulations, that the system generates and changes patterns suitable for its moving speed, i.e., walk, trot, and gallop