Application of Systems Identification to the Implementation of Motion Comouflage in Mobile Robots

Motion camouﬂage is an animal stealth behaviour in which a shadower—or predator—moves in the vicinity of a shadowee—or prey—in such a way that the laterperceivesnoapparentmotionapartfromtheselfmotion. Despite some light has been shed on the control mechanism generating this pursuit strategy, it is not fully understood. Motion camouﬂage represents an interesting challenge in biological motion, and although simulated controllers can be found in the literature, no implementation on real robots has been done so far.This paper presents the ﬁrst implementation of motion camouﬂage in real wheeled robots through a polynomial NARMAX model controller. The trajectories to adjust the model are generated using a heuristicapproach. The NARMAX model outperforms the heuristicapproach in terms of computational time and generates good camouﬂage trajectories in real robots and simulation. The transparency of polynomial models can also shed some light over this complex animal behaviour.

keywords: Biorobotics, Motion camouﬂage, Mobile robots, Systems identiﬁcation