with the real world – design principles for

New Robotics designates an approach to robotics that, in contrast to traditional robotics, employs ideas and principles from biology. While in the traditional approach there are generally accepted methods (e.g. from control theory), designing agents in the New Robotics approach is still largely considered an art. In recent years, we have been developing a set of heuristics or design principles, that on the one hand capture theoretical insights about intelligent – adaptive – behavior, and on the other provide guidance in actually designing and building systems. In this paper we provide an overview of all the principles but focus on the principles of “ecological balance ” which concerns the relation between environment, morphology, materials, and control, and “sensory-motor coordination ” which concerns self-generated sensory stimulation as the agent interacts with the environment and which is a key to the development of high-level intelligence. As we will argue, artificial evolution together with morphogenesis is not only “nice to have ” but is in fact a necessary tool for designing embodied agents. 1.

In this paper a novel hopping robot is introduced that uses inverse pendulum dynamics to induce several different gaits. Its mechanical structure consists of a rigid inverted T-shape mounted on four compliant feet. An upright "T" structure is connected to this by a rotary joint. The horizontal beam of the upright "T" is connected to the vertical beam by a second rotary joint. Using this two degree of freedom mechanical structure, the robot is able to perform lateral bounding in addition to hopping forward, reversing direction and turning. Here, the control of lateral bounding is investigated and experimentally tested. The results show that two unique limit cycles exist for lateral motion. Ipsilateral bounding, in the same direction as upper body motion, is fast but unstable and could be used for emergency situations. Contralateral bounding, on the other hand, is stable and robust, and can be viable for practical long-range applications on uneven terrain. The characteristics and control of these two modes of locomotion are explored in this paper.

For the locomotion of animals and machines, the friction between the body and the ground is one of the most crucial factors for stability and mobility. In this paper, we investigate how the friction could be exploited for the purpose of adaptive locomotion. At first, we propose two conceptual working hypotheses, especially focusing on two important issues, (1) how to control the friction to increase the stability of a locomotive system, and (2) how the friction could mobilize a system for a form of adaptive locomotion. Secondly, by using a hopping robotic platform we have developed, we evaluate the proposed ideas with three experimental case studies. The experimental results show the statistical plausibility of the proposed idea of increasing the stability of locomotion. Furthermore, it is shown that, by properly taking advantage of the friction, the robot could enlarge the repertoir of locomotion behaviors, which could presumably enhance the adaptability of robot locomotion.