Abstract
Under the influences from the environment, each animal has acquired an optimized body structure by evolutionary developmental process. For example, vertebrate land animals have sophisticated musculoskeletal structure possessing not only monoarticular muscles but also multiarticular muscles against the force of gravity. Many researchers have been developed musculoskeletal robots with a biarticular muscle to resemble the physical performance of the mimicked animal but there are few studies to reveal why such a structure has been developed. In this research, we developed a musculoskeletal robot with redundant actuators to investigate the developmental process of the body structure. By connecting sets of actuators physically, these actuators work as a multiarticular muscle and the motion of corresponding joints are interlocked. The experimental results shows that by changing the connection among the actuators, the response to the external forces can be modified. We also discuss the way to evolve the body structure and the feasibility of our conceptual approach.
