Related papers: Optimization of two- and three-link snake-like loc…
Snake robots offer exceptional mobility across extreme terrain inaccessible to conventional rovers, yet their highly articulated bodies present fundamental challenges for autonomous navigation in environments lacking external tracking…
We propose a new conceptual approach to reach unattained dissipative properties based on the friction of slender concentric sliding columns. We begin by searching for the optimal topology in the simplest telescopic system of two concentric…
The nonlinear mechanics of a flexible elastic rod constrained at its edges by a pair of sliding sleeves is analyzed. The planar equilibrium configurations of this variable-length elastica are found to have shape defined only by the…
Friction, the resistive force between two surfaces sliding past each other, is at the core of a wide diversity of locomotion schemes. While such schemes are somewhat understood for homogeneous environments, locomotion based on friction in…
Optimal transport aims to estimate a transportation plan that minimizes a displacement cost. This is realized by optimizing the scalar product between the sought plan and the given cost, over the space of doubly stochastic matrices. When…
Learning policies for bipedal locomotion can be difficult, as experiments are expensive and simulation does not usually transfer well to hardware. To counter this, we need al- gorithms that are sample efficient and inherently safe. Bayesian…
The freely jointed chain is often applied to model the thermodynamics of single polymer chains, but the traditional formulation of the model lacks internal energy changes due to bond stretching. For this reason, the extensible freely…
Allosteric proteins transmit a mechanical signal induced by binding a ligand. However, understanding the nature of the information transmitted and the architectures optimizing such transmission remains a challenge. Here we show using an…
Follow-the-leader (FTL) motion is essential for continuum robots operating in fragile and confined environments. It allows the robot to exert minimal force on its surroundings, reducing the risk of damage. This paper presents a novel design…
Bipedal robots have received much attention because of the variety of motion maneuvers that they can produce, and the many applications they have in various areas including rehabilitation. One of these motion maneuvers is walking. In this…
Elongate animals and robots use undulatory body waves to locomote through diverse environments. Geometric mechanics provides a framework to model and optimize such systems in highly damped environments, connecting a prescribed shape change…
Using an experimental optimization approach, this study investigated whether two human movements, pointing tasks and squat-jumps, could be modelled with a reduced set of kinematic parameters. Three sigmoid models were proposed to model the…
A systematic and automated framework for developing closed-loop flow control strategies is proposed, integrating suboptimal control theory [Lee et al., J. Fluid Mech. 358, 245 (1998)] with Bayesian optimization. The approach is demonstrated…
This paper represents an adaptive rhythmic control for a snake-like robot with 25 degrees of freedom. The adaptive gait control is implemented in algorithmic way in simulation and on a real robot. We investigated behavioral and energetic…
Gaits engineered for snake-like robots to rotate in-place instrumentally fill a gap in the set of locomotive gaits that have traditionally prioritized translation. This paper designs a Turn-in-Place gait and demonstrates the ability of a…
An efficient approach to compute near time-optimal trajectories for linear kinematic systems with oscillatory internal dynamics is presented. Thereby, kinematic constraints with respect to velocity, acceleration and jerk are taken into…
Rigid link flapping mechanisms remain the most practical choice for flapping wing micro-aerial vehicles (MAVs) to carry useful payloads and onboard batteries for free flight due to their long-term durability and reliability. However, MAVs…
Soft robotic snakes (SRSs) have a unique combination of continuous and compliant properties that allow them to imitate the complex movements of biological snakes. Despite the previous attempts to develop SRSs, many have been limited to…
Inverse optimal transport (OT) refers to the problem of learning the cost function for OT from observed transport plan or its samples. In this paper, we derive an unconstrained convex optimization formulation of the inverse OT problem,…
We show that every symmetric random variable with log-concave tails satisfies the convex infimum convolution inequality with an optimal cost function (up to scaling). As a result, we obtain nearly optimal comparison of weak and strong…