Toward a multi-disciplinary model for bio-robotic systems

The design of robotic systems involves contributions from several areas of science and engineering. Electrical, mechanical and software components must be integrated to form the final system. Increasingly, simulation tools are being introduced into the design flow as a means to verify the performance of particular subsystems. In order to accurately simulate the complete robotic system we propose a framework that allows designers to describe the robotic system as an interconnection of mechanical, electrical, and software components, with well defined mechanisms for communicating with each other. Through this, we form a multi-disciplinary model that captures both the dynamics of the individual subsystems, and the dynamics resulting from the interconnection of the above subsystems. As a case-study, we will apply the framework to a biologically inspired robotic snake.