Related papers: Bridging Walking and Slithering -- Stokesian Locom…
Sliding motion is evolution on a switching manifold of a discontinuous, piecewise-smooth system of ordinary differential equations. In this paper we quantitatively study the effects of small-amplitude, additive, white Gaussian noise on…
Efficient locomotion is important for the evolution of complex life, yet the physical principles selecting specific swimming strokes often remain entangled with biological constraints. In viscous fluids, the scallop theorem constrains the…
To traverse complex three-dimensional terrainwith large obstacles, animals and robots must transition across different modes. However, the most mechanistic understanding of terrestrial locomotion concerns how to generate and stabilize…
Locomotion by shape changes (spermatozoon swimming, snake slithering, bird flapping) or gas expulsion (rocket firing) is assumed to require environmental interaction, due to conservation of momentum. As first noted in (Wisdom, 2003) and…
We derive a multiphysics model that accounts for network elasticity with spontaneous strains, swelling and nematic interactions in liquid crystal gels (LCGs). We discuss the coupling among the various physical mechanisms, with particular…
We investigate the dynamics of several slender rigid bodies moving in a flow driven by the three-dimensional steady Stokes system in presence of a smooth background flow. More precisely we consider the limit where the thickness of these…
Quadrupeds transition spontaneously to various gait patterns (e.g., walk, trot, pace, gallop) in response to the locomotion speed. The generation of these gait patterns has been the subject of debate for a long time. We propose a coupled…
Ankle push-off largely contributes to limb energy generation in human walking, leading to smoother and more efficient locomotion. Providing this net positive work to an amputee requires an active prosthesis, but has the potential to enable…
Liquid drops slide more slowly over soft, deformable substrates than over rigid solids. This phenomenon can be attributed to the viscoelastic dissipation induced by the moving wetting ridge, which inhibits a rapid motion, and is called…
Learning controllers that reproduce legged locomotion in nature has been a long-time goal in robotics and computer graphics. While yielding promising results, recent approaches are not yet flexible enough to be applicable to legged systems…
In this article, we are interested in studying locomotion strategies for a class of shape-changing bodies swimming in a fluid. This class consists of swimmers subject to a particular linear dynamics, which includes the two most investigated…
A computational approach is introduced for the study of the rheological properties of complex fluids and soft materials. The approach allows for a consistent treatment of microstructure elastic mechanics, hydrodynamic coupling, thermal…
The dynamics of moving solids with unilateral contacts are often modeled by assuming rigidity, point contacts, and Coulomb friction due to the simplicity of these models. The canonical example of a rigid rod with one endpoint slipping in…
A coarse grained description of a two phase fluid is used to study the steady state configuration of the interface separating the coexisting phases, and the motion of the contact line at which the interface intersects a solid boundary. The…
In the first part of this thesis, we present our efforts on experimental validation of the predictive performance of mechanics-based mathematical models on a physical one-legged hopping robot platform. We extend upon a recently proposed…
In this article, we consider a swimmer (i.e. a self-deformable body) immersed in a fluid, the flow of which is governed by the stationary Stokes equations. This model is relevant for studying the locomotion of microorganisms or micro robots…
Soft slender structures are ubiquitous in natural and artificial systems and can be observed at scales that range from the nanometric to the kilometric, from polymers to space tethers. We present a practical numerical approach to simulate…
The macroscopic properties of polymeric fluids are inherited from the material properties of the fibers embedded in the solvent. The behavior of such passive fibers in flow has been of interest in a wide range of systems, including cellular…
Although typically possessing four limbs and short bodies, lizards have evolved a diversity of body plans, from short-bodied and fully-limbed to elongate and nearly limbless. Such diversity in body morphology is hypothesized as adaptations…
The balance of pseudomomentum is discussed and applied to simple elasticity, ideal fluids, and the mechanics of inextensible rods and sheets. A general framework is presented in which the simultaneous variation of an action with respect to…