Minimalistic decentralized control using stochastic resonance inspired from a skeletal muscle

Sarcomere is a functional unit constituting a skeletal muscle, which can only contract and relax in response to changes in Ca⁺ concentration. In order from the simple to the most complex, it builds structures corresponding to myofibrils, muscle fibers, muscle fiber bundles and the skeletal muscle. This distinctive hierarchical structure of skeletal muscles has been intensively studied in interdisciplinary research fields. In engineering, how the system efficiently controls a large number of sarcomeres to express continuous output force, is a point that has been focused. In this research, we propose a new decentralized control which is very simple but can manage many binary functional units by exploiting environmental noise. The validity of method is confirmed in both numerical simulation and a developed biologically inspired actuator.