Related papers: Bridging Walking and Slithering -- Stokesian Locom…
The motion of a rotating helical body in a viscoelastic fluid is considered. In the case of force-free swimming, the introduction of viscoelasticity can either enhance or retard the swimming speed and locomotive efficiency, depending on the…
Suspensions with fiber-like particles in the low Reynolds number regime are modeled by two different approaches that both use a Lagrangian representation of individual particles. The first method is the well-established formulation based on…
We introduce a system where an elastic lattice of particles is moved slowly at a constant velocity under the influence of a local external potential, construct a rigid-body model through simplification processes, and show that the two…
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…
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…
Foot slip is a major source of instability in bipedal locomotion on low-friction or uncertain terrain. Standard control approaches typically assume no-slip contact and therefore degrade when slip occurs. We propose a control framework that…
The elastohydrodynamics of slender bodies in a viscous fluid have long been the source of theoretical investigation, being pertinent to the microscale world of ciliates and flagellates as well as to biological and engineered active matter…
We formulate and solve the locomotion problem for a bio-inspired crawler consisting of two active elastic segments (i.e., capable of changing their rest lengths), resting on three supports providing directional frictional interactions. The…
Locomotion requires that an animal or robot be able to move itself forward farther than it moves backward in each gait cycle (formally, that it be able to break the symmetry of its interactions with the world). Previous work has established…
In this theoretical study, we present an analytical framework to investigate the slithering motion of snakes on flat surfaces. While previous studies have predominantly relied on numerical methods to identify optimal locomotion kinematics,…
We extend a smooth dynamical systems averaging technique to a class of hybrid systems with a limit cycle that is particularly relevant to the synthesis of stable legged gaits. After introducing a definition of hybrid averageability…
We studied locomotion of a crawler on a thin Newtonian fluid film whose viscosity varied spatially. We first derived a general locomotion velocity formula with fluid viscosity variations via the lubrication theory. For further analysis, the…
An axisymmetric squirmer in a Bingham viscoplastic fluid is studied numerically to determine the effect of a yield stress environment on locomotion. The nonlinearity of the governing equations necessitates numerical methods, which is…
In nature, a variety of limbless locomotion patterns flourish from the small or basic life form (Escherichia coli, the amoeba, etc.) to the large or intelligent creatures (e.g., slugs, starfishes, earthworms, octopuses, jellyfishes, and…
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…
Computing stabilizing and optimal control actions for legged locomotion in real time is difficult due to the nonlinear, hybrid, and high dimensional nature of these robots. The hybrid nature of the system introduces a combination of…
Here we introduce a two-dimensional (2D) low-Reynolds swimmer and discuss the motion of the swimmer both in noise-free and stochastic regimes. Three spheres, linked by extensible arms, in a plane form the triangle body of micro-swimmer.…
Snakes' bodies are covered in scales that make it easier to slide in some directions than in others. This frictional anisotropy allows for sliding locomotion with an undulatory gait, one of the most common for snakes. Isotropic friction is…
Humans typically walk at low speeds and run at higher speeds. Previous studies of transitions between walking and running were mostly on treadmills, but real-world locomotion allows more flexibility. Here, we study overground locomotion…
We study the motion of elastic networks driven over a random substrate. Our model which includes local friction forces leads to complex dynamical behavior. We find a transition to a sliding state which belongs to a new universality class.…