Natural oscillation control experiments on a prototype mechanical rectifier

For a typical biologically inspired multi-segmental mechanical system, the system’s locomotion behavior is rectified from the segments’ rhythmic oscillation. A central pattern generator (CPG) based controller has been developed to achieve the locomotion with a certain sense of natural oscillation. We designed and manufactured a prototype mechanical rectifier (PMR) system which captures the essential mechanism of multi-segmental systems. Experiments were conducted on the PMR system to reveal the effectiveness of the natural oscillation entrainment controller.