Related papers: Slow Limb Movements Require Precise Control of Mus…
Human locomotion emerges from high-dimensional neuromuscular control, making predictive musculoskeletal simulation challenging. We present a physiology-informed reinforcement-learning framework that constrains control using muscle…
This paper focuses on the analysis of human gait cycle dynamics and presents a mathematical model to determine the torque exerted on the lower limb joints throughout the complete gait cycle, including its various phases. The study involved…
Stylized models of the neurodynamics that underpin sensory motor control in animals are proposed and studied. The voluntary motions of animals are typically initiated by high level intentions created in the primary cortex through a…
As technologies and interfaces for the instrumental control of musical sound get ever better at tracking aspects of human position and motion in space, a fundamental problem emerges: Unintended or even counter-intentional control may result…
Small continuous sensory and mechanical perturbations have often been used to identify properties of the closed-loop neural control of posture and other systems that are approximately linear time invariant. Here we extend this approach to…
We present a locomotion mechanism that uses the stick-slip transition of a soft passive structure with an internal mechanical resonance. The structure is harmonically driven by a global vertical shaking and, because of its resonance…
Semi-active vibration reduction techniques are defined as techniques in which controlled actions do not operate directly on the system's degrees of freedom (as in the case of active vibration control) but on the system's parameters, i.e.,…
We address the problem of stability of motor actions implemented by the central nervous system based on simple algorithms potentially reflecting physical (including physiological) processes within the body. A number of conceptually simple…
Human joint dynamic stiffness plays an important role in the stability of performance augmentation exoskeletons. In this paper, we consider a new frequency domain model of the human joint dynamics which features a complex value stiffness.…
From the mitotic spindle up to tissues and biofilms, many biological systems behave as active droplets, which often break symmetry and change shape spontaneously. Here, I show that active nematic droplets can experience a fingering…
Continuum robots have gained widespread popularity due to their inherent compliance and flexibility, particularly their adjustable levels of stiffness for various application scenarios. Despite efforts to dynamic modeling and control…
Ensuring symmetric stiffness in impedance-controlled robots is crucial for physically meaningful and stable interaction in contact-rich manipulation. Conventional approaches neglect the change of basis vectors in curved spaces, leading to…
Control Lyapunov function is a central tool in stabilization. It generalizes an abstract energy function -- a Lyapunov function -- to the case of controlled systems. It is a known fact that most control Lyapunov functions are non-smooth --…
Voluntary human motion is the product of muscle activity that results from upstream motion planning of the motor cortical areas. We show that muscle activity can be artificially generated based on motion features such as position, velocity,…
The complex ways in which humans utilize their bodies in sports and martial arts are remarkable, and human motion analysis is one of the most effective tools for robot body design and control. On the other hand, motion analysis is not easy,…
This work has the goal of briefly surveying some key stabilization techniques for general nonlinear systems, for which, as it is well known, a smooth control Lyapunov function may fail to exist. A general overview of the situation with…
Envisioned applications for humanoid robots call for the design of balancing and walking controllers. While promising results have been recently achieved, robust and reliable controllers are still a challenge for the control community…
Safe yet stable grasping requires a robotic hand to apply sufficient force on the object to immobilize it while keeping it from getting damaged. Soft robotic hands have been proposed for safe grasping due to their passive compliance, but…
Inspired by the vertebrate branch of the animal kingdom, articulated soft robots are robotic systems embedding elastic elements into a classic rigid (skeleton-like) structure. Leveraging on their bodies elasticity, soft robots promise to…
Robotic arms built from stiffness-adjustable, continuously bending segments serially connected with revolute joints have the ability to change their mechanical architecture and workspace, thus allowing high flexibility and adaptation to…