TY - JOUR
T1 - Development of a hybrid wheel-legged mobile robot WR-3 designed for the behavior analysis of rats
AU - Shi, Qing
AU - Ishii, Hiroyuki
AU - Miyagishima, Shunsuke
AU - Konno, Shinichiro
AU - Fumino, Shogo
AU - Takanishi, Atsuo
AU - Okabayashi, Satoshi
AU - Iida, Naritoshi
AU - Kimura, Hiroshi
N1 - Funding Information:
This work was supported in part by the special coordination fund for promoting science and technology from MEXT, Japan, the ‘Humanoid Research Institute (HRI)’ Waseda University, ‘The Innovative Research on Symbiosis Technologies for Human and Robots in the Elderly Dominated Society’, Global Centers of Excellence (COE) Program, STMicroelectrnics Co. and Japan Society for the Promotion of Science.
PY - 2011
Y1 - 2011
N2 - This paper presents the design and development of a bio-inspired mobile robot called WR-3 (Waseda Rat no. 3). The purpose of the robot is to work as an experimental tool to study social interaction between rats and robots. According to the results of the analysis of the motion of rats, their behavior can be divided into two phases: movement and interaction. Therefore, a novel hybrid mechanism that uses wheels during the movement phase and legs while interacting has been designed to actuate WR-3. Consequently, the robot can move at a high speed using its wheels, and reproduce the rat's interaction behavior using its legs and other parts. Based on body structure of a mature rat, WR-3 has been designed with similar dimensions and shape as a mature rat, and the quality of the shape imitation has been verified by the experiments of a rat's interestingness to the robot and stuffed rat. Evaluation experiments show that WR-3 is capable of reproducing a rat's actions such as chasing, rearing, grooming, mounting, etc., similar to a real rat. Furthermore, preliminary social interaction tests with living rats reveal that WR-3 is to some extent able to evoke natural reactions form a real rat and is therefore able to perform a certain level of realistic interaction.
AB - This paper presents the design and development of a bio-inspired mobile robot called WR-3 (Waseda Rat no. 3). The purpose of the robot is to work as an experimental tool to study social interaction between rats and robots. According to the results of the analysis of the motion of rats, their behavior can be divided into two phases: movement and interaction. Therefore, a novel hybrid mechanism that uses wheels during the movement phase and legs while interacting has been designed to actuate WR-3. Consequently, the robot can move at a high speed using its wheels, and reproduce the rat's interaction behavior using its legs and other parts. Based on body structure of a mature rat, WR-3 has been designed with similar dimensions and shape as a mature rat, and the quality of the shape imitation has been verified by the experiments of a rat's interestingness to the robot and stuffed rat. Evaluation experiments show that WR-3 is capable of reproducing a rat's actions such as chasing, rearing, grooming, mounting, etc., similar to a real rat. Furthermore, preliminary social interaction tests with living rats reveal that WR-3 is to some extent able to evoke natural reactions form a real rat and is therefore able to perform a certain level of realistic interaction.
KW - WR-3
KW - Wheel-legged robot
KW - action reproduction
KW - behavior analysis
KW - bio-inspired
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U2 - 10.1163/016918611X603819
DO - 10.1163/016918611X603819
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:81755187424
SN - 0169-1864
VL - 25
SP - 2255
EP - 2272
JO - Advanced Robotics
JF - Advanced Robotics
IS - 18
ER -