CPG-based Sensory Feedback Control for Bio-inspired Multimodal Swimming

Sensory feedback plays a very significant role in the generation of diverse and stable movements for animals. In this paper we describe our effort to develop a Central Pattern Generator (CPG)-based sensory feedback control for the creation of multimodal swimming for a multi-articulated robotic fish in the context of neurocomputing. The proposed control strategy is composed of two phases: the upper decision-making and the automatic adjustment. According to the upper control commands and the sensory inputs, different swimming gaits are determined by a finite state machine algorithm. At the same time, the sensory feedback is exploited to shape the CPG coupling forms and control parameters. In the automatic adjustment phase, the CPG model with sensory feedback will adapt the environment autonomously. Simulation and underwater tests are further conducted to verify the presented control scheme. It is found that the CPG-based sensory feedback control method can effectively improve the manoeuvrability and adaptability of the robotic fish in water.