Related papers: Optimization of two- and three-link snake-like loc…
Object manipulation has been extensively studied in the context of fixed base and mobile manipulators. However, the overactuated locomotion modality employed by snake robots allows for a unique blend of object manipulation through…
Biological springs can be used in nature for energy conservation and ultra-fast motion. The loading and unloading rates of elastic materials can play an important role in determining how the properties of these springs affect movements. We…
This paper focuses on spatial time-optimal motion planning, a generalization of the exact time-optimal path following problem that allows the system to plan within a predefined space. In contrast to state-of-the-art methods, we drop the…
The levels of agility and flight or swimming performance demonstrated by insects, birds, fish, and even some aquatic invertebrates, are often vastly superior to what even the most advanced human-engineered vehicles operating in the same…
The aim of this study is to give insights into the trajectory optimization w.r.t. energy consumption and recuperation for stacker cranes in a high-bay warehouse. Based on an analytical necessary optimality condition, a targeted numerical…
In this paper, we present a new model of biped locomotion which is composed of three linear pendulums (one per leg and one for the whole upper body) to describe stance, swing and torso dynamics. In addition to double support, this model has…
Although commonly associated with limbless animals like snakes and fish, multi-legged organisms like centipedes also utilize undulatory locomotion. Whether these undulations are actively reinforced or resisted by the axial musculature…
Balancing oneself using the spine is a physiological alignment of the body posture in the most efficient manner by the muscular forces for mammals. For this reason, we can see many disabled quadruped animals can still stand or walk even…
This paper studies bipedal locomotion as a nonlinear optimization problem based on continuous and discrete dynamics, by simultaneously optimizing the remaining step duration, the next step duration and the foot location to achieve…
Animals achieve robust locomotion by offloading regulation from the brain to physical couplings within the body. In contrast, locomotion in artificial systems often depends on centralized processors. We introduce a rapid and autonomous…
This work investigates the spatio-temporal evolution of coherentstructures in the wake of a high-speed train. SPOD is used to extract energy spectra and empirical modes for both symmetric and antisymmetric components of the fluctuating flow…
Terrestrial locomotion requires generating appropriate ground reaction forces which depend on substrate geometry and physical properties. The richness of positions and orientations of terrain features in the 3-D world gives limbless animals…
A beam-slider system is considered whose passive self-adaption relies on an intricate locomotion process involving both frictional and unilateral contact. The system also exploits geometric nonlinearity to achieve broadband efficacy. The…
Snakes are a remarkable evolutionary success story. Many snake-inspired robots have been proposed over the years. Soft robotic snakes (SRS) with their continuous and smooth bending capability better mimic their biological counterparts'…
In legged locomotion, the relationship between different gait behaviors and energy consumption must consider the full-body dynamics and the robot control as a whole, which cannot be captured by simple models. This work studies the robot…
Minimising the energy consumption associated with periodic motion is a priority common to a wide range of technologies and organisms - among them, many species of flying insect, for which flapping-wing flight is a life-essential mode of…
When navigating complex environments, animals often combine multiple strategies to mitigate the effects of external disturbances. These modalities often correspond to different sources of information, leading to speed-accuracy trade-offs.…
This paper solves the optimization problem for a simplified one-dimensional worm model when the friction force depends on the direction of the motion. The motion of the worm is controlled by the actuator force $f(t)$ which is assumed to be…
Simplified models are useful to increase the computational efficiency of a motion planning algorithm, but their lack of accuracy have to be managed. We propose two feasibility constraints to be included in a Single Rigid Body Dynamicsbased…
Compliant mechanisms achieve motion through elastic deformation. In this work, we address the synthesis of a compliant cross-hinge mechanism capable of large angular strokes while approximating the behavior of an ideal revolute joint. To…