Physical Reservoir Computing with Origami and its Application to Robotic Crawling
This work addresses the problem of achieving embodied mechanical intelligence in soft robotics, offering a novel approach to robotic control through physical computing.
The study demonstrated that an origami structure can function as a physical reservoir computer, capable of emulating high-order nonlinear systems and generating stable limit cycles, and applied this to control an earthworm-like robotic crawler without traditional controllers.
A new paradigm called physical reservoir computing has recently emerged, where the nonlinear dynamics of high-dimensional and fixed physical systems are harnessed as a computational resource to achieve complex tasks. Via extensive simulations based on a dynamic truss-frame model, this study shows that an origami structure can perform as a dynamic reservoir with sufficient computing power to emulate high-order nonlinear systems, generate stable limit cycles, and modulate outputs according to dynamic inputs. This study also uncovers the linkages between the origami reservoir's physical designs and its computing power, offering a guideline to optimize the computing performance. Comprehensive parametric studies show that selecting optimal feedback crease distribution and fine-tuning the underlying origami folding designs are the most effective approach to improve computing performance. Furthermore, this study shows how origami's physical reservoir computing power can apply to soft robotic control problems by a case study of earthworm-like peristaltic crawling without traditional controllers. These results can pave the way for origami-based robots with embodied mechanical intelligence.