7
Introduction to Biologically Inspired Robotics
(a)

(b)
FIGURE 1.6
(a) Four-legged robot designed by Hirose and Yamada (2009) at the Tokyo Institute of
Technology and (b) six-legged mobile robots.
systems. When physical stimulation is received by the human body, the body
will immediately react to the stimulation. For example, when your hand gets
too close to a hot stove, your hand will automatically move away from the
source of heat once it feels hot. In behavior control, there are a number of
primitive behaviors that are reactive responses to information collected by a
sensor or a group of sensors in parallel (Figure 1.7). Primitive behaviors are
arranged in a hierarchical structure so that coordination among them can
be easily carried out. This approach is widely used in navigation control of
mobile robots.