魚の筋肉構造を応用した次世代ロボティクス研究 (From Fish Muscles to Next-Generation Robotics)

20206-04-27 北京大学(PKU)

北京大学の知能バイオミメティック設計研究室は、魚類の筋肉が単なる推進器官ではなく、「運動」と「感知」の両機能を持つことを示し、その原理をロボットへ応用する研究成果を発表した。研究チームは筋電位(EMG)信号を解析し、自由遊泳する魚の体勢や周囲の流体環境を推定するシステムを開発。深層学習により筋信号から関節角度を再構築し、水流条件や遊泳速度も識別できた。また、渦流環境では筋活動より先に体が変形する現象を確認し、筋肉が外部流体を感知するセンサー的役割を果たす可能性を示した。さらに、魚の筋活動データのみで訓練したモデルをロボット魚へ適用し、追加学習なしで尾部運動を高精度に予測することに成功した。研究は、生物の形状模倣に留まらず、感覚運動ダイナミクスそのものを取り入れた次世代水中ロボティクスへの応用可能性を示している。

魚の筋肉構造を応用した次世代ロボティクス研究 (From Fish Muscles to Next-Generation Robotics)
Figure 1. Recording fish muscle signals and converting them into body motion.

<関連情報>

魚類向けEMG駆動型テレメトリおよび推論システム:姿勢再構築と流れ検知 EMG-Driven Telemetry and Inference System for Fish: Pose Reconstruction and Flow Sensing

Rahdar Hussain Afridi, Waqar Hussain Afridi, Muhammad Hamza, Ahsan Tanveer, Mingxin Wu, Xingwen Zheng, Liang Li, Guangming Xie
Advanced Intelligent Systems  Published: 16 April 2026
DOI:https://doi.org/10.1002/aisy.202501085

Abstract

Intelligent sensing systems that integrate biological signals with machine learning open new opportunities to understand and replicate animal locomotion in natural environments. Conventional telemetry methods capture only limited variables and cannot reconstruct detailed kinematics or hydrodynamic context. An electromyography (EMG)-driven intelligent telemetry framework is introduced that decodes both body pose and environmental conditions in freely swimming fish. A custom 16-channel telemetry unit recorded intramuscular EMG synchronized with kinematics across laminar flows at multiple speeds, two Kármán vortex streets, a reverse Kármán vortex street, and free-swimming trials. A deep neural network mapped feature-augmented EMG to joint angles in a head-fixed frame, enabling midline reconstruction with sub-centimeter accuracy (∼3.8% body length) and joint angle prediction within 4° root mean squared erroFir (R ≈ 0.81). The same pipeline classified flow regimes and discrete flow speeds with high accuracy. Channel-efficiency analysis identified mid-body axial electrodes as sufficient to capture most flow-relevant information, guiding minimizing electrode count and invasiveness. Predicted kinematics were validated through computational fluid dynamics simulations and robotic embodiment that replayed decoded swimming motions. These results establish EMG as a dual-purpose bio-signal for locomotor and environmental inference, demonstrating an AI-driven telemetry framework that links muscle activity, kinematics, and fluid interactions.

 

推進力を超えて:筋肉の固有受容感覚が魚の体内の流体力学的感覚を可能にする Beyond propulsion: muscle proprioception enables hydrodynamic sensing in fish body

Rahdar Hussain Afridi;Waqar Hussain Afridi;Muhammad Hamza;Mingxin Wu;Li-Ming Chao;Yufan Zhai;Liang Li;Guangming Xie
Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences  Published:29 Oct 2025
DOI:https://doi.org/10.1098/rspb.2025.0474

Abstract

In aquatic environments, muscle activity in free-swimming fishes not only propels body undulations to generate thrust but also serves as proprioceptive sensors for detecting surrounding fluid dynamics. Testing the proprioceptive function of the muscle is challenging owing to its deep integration with swimming activity. To address this, we introduce an experimental platform that records up to 12-channel electromyography (EMG) signals synchronized with detailed kinematics in koi and carp. We first apply various neural networks to map densely collected EMG signals to synchronized video-based body kinematics, thereby validating our EMG collection system. We then compare EMG data from fishes swimming in various laminar flows and within Kármán vortices. Our results show that the phase of muscle activity consistently precedes body kinematics in various laminar flows. While within Kármán vortices, we observe a mixed phase relationship, where muscle activity sometimes leads and at other times lags behind body kinematics. This suggests that fishes may use muscle proprioceptive sensing when interacting with complex flows, such as nearby vortices. Our research not only introduces novel methods for biological EMG studies but also offers insights that could influence the design of bio-inspired underwater sensory systems.

 

解釈可能なモデルを介した魚類の感覚運動ダイナミクスのバイオからロボットへの伝達 Bio-to-Robot Transfer of Fish Sensorimotor Dynamics via Interpretable Model

Waqar Hussain Afridi, Ahsan Tanveer, Rahdar Hussain Afridi, Muhammad Hamza, Mingxin Wu, Liang Li, Guangming Xie
Advanced Intelligent Systems  Published: 02 December 2025
DOI:https://doi.org/10.1002/aisy.202501117

Abstract

Swimming in fish arises from tightly integrated neural, muscular, skeletal, and hydrodynamic processes that are difficult to capture in compact, transferable models for robotics. An interpretable system identification (SySID) is presented that bidirectionally maps between electromyography (EMG) and kinematics in freely swimming koi and further tests its generalization to a robotic fish. Synchronized EMG and kinematic are collected across laminar, Kármán vortex, and reverse Kármán vortex flows spanning 0.146–0.274 m s−1. A linear autoregressive with exogenous input (ARX) model architecture is chosen to capture both feedforward (EMG to kinematics) and feedback (kinematics to EMG) pathways, enabling the extraction of key system parameters, such as natural frequency, damping ratio, and input–output delays. Cross-individual validation demonstrates robust performance and identifies the best-performing fish-trained model, which is then evaluated for cross-domain transfer by replacing EMG input with processed pulse width modulation actuation signals from a robotic fish. Despite differences in mechanics and actuation physics, predictions closely match measured trajectories (mean R2 = 0.86 ± 0.13), substantially outperforming a deep neural network (97.8% higher percentage fit index) trained on the same biological datasets. These findings show that compact, interpretable SySID models enable accurate bio-to-robot transfer without robot-specific retraining, grounding robotic motion models directly in biological function rather than imitation.

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