Motion Control and Coupled Oscillators

Abstract

It is remarkable that despite the presence of large numbers of degrees of freedom, motion control problems are effectively solved in biological systems. While feedback, regulation and tracking have served us well in engineering, as useful solution paradigms for a wide variety of control problems including motion control, it appears that nature gives prominent roles to planning and co-ordination as well. There is also complex interplay between sensory feedback and motion planning to achieve effective operation in uncertain environments, for example, in movement on uneven terrain cluttered with obstacles. <p>Recent investigations by neurophysiologists have brought to increasing prominence the idea of central pattern generators -- a class of coupled oscillators -- as sources of motion scripts as well as a means for coordinating multiple degrees of freedom. The role of coupled oscillators in motion control systems is currently under intense investigation. <p>In this paper we examine some unifying themes relating movements in biological systems and machines. An important insight in this direction comes from the natural grouping of degrees of freedom and time scales in biological and engineering systems. Such grouping and separation can be treated from a geometric viewpoint using the formalisms and methods of differential geometry, Lie groups, and fiber bundles. Coupled oscillators provide the means to bind degrees of freedom either directly through phase locking or indirectly through geometric phases. This point of view leads to fresh ways of organizing the control structures of complex technological systems.